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/ 

A EEYIEW 



OF THE 



PUBLIC RELATIONS 



OP THE 



SOCIETY OP FMENDS, 



ITS 



DOCTRINES AND DISCIPLINE, 



ITS 



SCHISMS AND DECLINE, 



BY / 

/ 

WILLIAM LOGAN FISHER. 



\ 



PHILADELPHIA: 

Merrihew & Thompson, Printers, 

No. 7 Carter's Alley. 

1852. 



-v 



s^n-^ 



3\ 



i^s" 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

I DEDICATE the following review to the individual members 
of the various divisions of the Society of Friends, and espe- 
cially to men of independent views, who may be disposed 
candidly to examine the principles upon which religious so- 
cieties are founded. I have written it with feelings that 
would not willingly injure the Society, nor wound the tender- 
est mind. 

I have believed that the great principles of this Society are 
obscured by a narrow minded sectarianism ; this I have en- 
deavored to demonstrate. 

I am fully aware of the wrong motives that have been attri- 
buted to those who have had the temerity to express doubts 
of the utility of their discipline as it now exists, and of the 
practice under it. Men of foregone conclusions will naturally 
be disposed to condemn. 

In a limited work, it has not been in my power to make 
extended quotations. If I have given a wrong view of the 
sentiments of authors, or have drawn wrong inferences from 
facts, it is through inadvertence or from a want of perception. 
While there are different meanings attached to the same word, 
there will be ambiguity. Morality, strictly speaking, applies 
to the conduct of men to each other, yet, in common language, 
moral and religious good are often confounded. 

I would willingly have avoided any of those designations of 
the several divisions of the Society of Friends, which they re- 
ject, if I had known how else to distinguish them. 

Having lately written a small work on the philosophy of 



4 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 

the mind, I have probably, in pursuing the same ideas, used 
somewhat the same language. I have not deemed it needful to 
refer to this book in the text, as but few copies were printed. 
To avoid ambiguity I may say, that I am a member of that 
portion of the Society that are called Hicksites. Before 
the division, while I was still an active member, I was 
much dissatisfied with the harshness and unkindness of the 
discipline. At the separation I preferred the Hicks'tes, be- 
lieving them the more liberal. At a subsequent period I 
proposed, in the regular form, that the discipline should be 
modified; the subject was discussed in a Monthly meeting^ 
where I stated my views, when it was decided that the Society 
was not prepared for the change. From that period, more than 
ten years ago, I have not attended a Monthly meeting. I have 
frequently been invited by individuals of the Orthodox Society 
to resume my seat in their meeting, and by the Hicksites to 
take part in their proceedings. I have declined all overtures 
of this kind, not from any unkindness to either party, for I 
have none; but because, having done my part, I did not wish 
even tacily to participate in measures which I did not approve. 
I have felt no regret for the course I have pursued. I have 
now thought it right to give my sentiments a more permanent 
form. 

I have supposed that there are some minds that will be dis- 
posed to examine the views I have expressed. If it be not so, 
I shall still feel satisfied. 

I have considered the subject under the ^Ye following 
heads : 

First, — The Society of Friends in its public relations. 

Second, — Doctrines of Friends. 

Third, — The Discipline. 

Fourth, — The Schisms. 

Fifth, — Suggestions of the Means of Improvement. 



REVIEW. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS IN ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS. 

It requires but a limited knowledge of history to 
perceive that the principles promulgated by the early 
Quakers, have had an interesting and important influ- 
ence on the affairs of the world in the last two hun- 
dred years. 

We make the following extracts from writers not 
connected with the Society, confirming this opinion. 

"The rise of the people called Quakers,'' says Ban- 
croft, "is one of the memorable events in the history 
of man. It marks the moment when intellectual free- 
dom was claimed unconditionally by the people as an 
inalienable birthright. • . . The principle of the 
Quakers contained a moral revolution. If it flattered 
self-love, and fed enthusiasm, it also established abso- 
lute freedom of mind, trod every idolatry under foot, 
and entered the strongest protest against the forms 
of a hierarchy." 

Of Fox, he remarks, " That the simplicity of truth 
was restored by his means, that his boyish spirit 
yearned after excellence, and he was haunted by a 
vague desire of an unknown illimitable good ; that his 
enquiring mind was gently led along to principles of 

1* 



6 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. U 

endless and eternal love ; light dawned upon him, and 
though the world was rocked by tempests of opinion, 
his secret and yet unconscious belief was firmly 
stayed by the anchor of hope ; his soul enjoyed the 
sweetness of repose, and he came up from the agony 
of doubt into the paradise of contemplation." 

Coleridge, in his Biographia Literaria, speaks thus : 
^' One assertion I will venture to make, as suggested 
by my own experience: that there exist folios on the 
human understanding, and the nature of man, which 
would have a far juster claim to their high rank and 
celebrity, if in the whole huge volume there could be 
found as much fulness of heart and intellect, as bursts 
forth in many a simple page of George Fox.'' 
.. Carlyle, in his Sartor Resartus, says of Fox : <'This 
man, the first of the Quakers, and by trade a shoe- 
maker, was one of those to whom, under ruder or 
purer forms, the divine idea of the Universe is pleased 
to manifest itself ; and across all the hulls of igno- 
rance and earthly degradation, shine through, in un- 
speakable awfulness, unspeakable beauty on their 
souls ; who therefore are rightly accounted prophets, 
God-possessed, or even Gods, as in some periods it 
has chanced. ...... 

If Diogenes was the greatest man of antiquity, only 
that he wanted decency, then by stronger reason is 
George Fox the greatest of the moderns ; and greater 
than Diogenes himself, for he too stands on the ada- 
mantine basis of his manhood, casting aside all props 
and shoars ; yet not in half savage pride, undervalue- 
ing the earth ; valueing it rather as a place to yield 
him warmth and food, he looks heavenward from his 
earth, and dwells in an element of mercy and worship' 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. T 

with a still strength, such as the cynic's tub did nowise 
witness.'' 

" The Journal of George Fox," says Sir James 
Macintosh, '' is one of the most extraordinary and 
instructive documents in the world, and no man of 
competent judgment can peruse it without revering 
the virtue of the author," 

We no where in history find a record of purer de- 
votion than that of George Fox in his earlier years. 
His soul was yielded up to the influences of divine 
good. He was a spiritualist ; believed in God, not be- 
cause he read of him in the Scriptures, but from the 
immediate operation of truth in his own breast. With 
a mind greatly freed from every external bias, he 
perceived that there was an internal principle or moral 
sense, independent of all outward evidences, and that 
under its government the whole moral nature of man 
would become purified, and evil necessarily come to 
an end. That it was universal and unchangeable, 
applicable to all men ; that it had no connexion with 
castes or creeds, dogmas, or rituals, and that living 
under its guidance would necessarily bring man into 
harmony witn all moral and religious intelligence, 
and introduce him into brotherhood with his fellow 
man. 

Cromwell, it is stated, said to Fox, with a kind of double 
entendre, shaking him cordially by the hand, ''George, 
come again to my house, for if thou and! were but an 
hour of a day together, we should be nearer the one 
to the other."* But George was not enticed by these 
professions ; Cromwell invited him to partake of his 

*Fox's Journal, folio, page 138. 



8 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

hospitality, but George declined ; and Cromwell after- 
wards said, " now I see there is a people risen and 
come up that I cannot win either with gifts, honours, 
offices, or places, but all other sects and people I 
can." 

In their early career the Quakers manifested hos- 
tility to corruption in every form in which it could be 
presented. The conduct of kings and potentates, 
priests and laymen, professional men and sectarians, 
received in turn their severe animadversion. Un- 
limited by^sectarian feeling, unawed by authority, 
they asked justice for all — and for that they con- 
tended manfully ; where the rights of man were 
invaded, there were they found. William Penn's 
house in England was besieged by Roman Catholics 
and dissenters, asking his good offices in pleading 
for their rights. The author of that celebrated work, 
Pilgrim's Progress, was released from a long imprison- 
ment at the intercession of the Quakers. The deli- 
cate office of conveying King Charles II. from Eng- 
land to France, was entrusted to two Quakers, one 
of whom carried him on his shoulders from the boat. 
True to his principles, he accepted no reward, de- 
claring he did not aid him because he was a king, 
but because he was a man in distress.* They had 

♦These men were Richard Penderell and Richard Carver, 
master and mate of the vessel that carried the king away, 
after the battle of Worcester. They alone were entrusted 
with the secret. It was Carver, the mate, who carried him 
on his back. After the king\s restoration, Carver went, with 
other Friends, to ask that foyr hundred Quakers then in pri- 
son, should be released. The king recognized him at bnce, 
granted his request and remitted the fines. The patent, with 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 9 

embassies to Rome, to Jerusalem, to Malta, asking 
freedom from oppression, and extension to the rights 
of man. They came to the settlers of New England, 
who most cruelly oppressed the Antinomians, Baptists, 
and others, pleading for the repeal of their unrigh- 
teous laws. 

The trial of William Penn and William Meade at 
the Old Bailey, for speaking at one of the Quaker 
meeting houses, is supposed to have done more to 
shake the corruptions of the British Bench, than any 
thing that ever occurred. Again and again were 
the jury sent out by the judge, who threatened to fine 
them if they did not give a verdict against the pri- 
soners. Penn and his friends manfully maintained 
their ground, appealing to Magna Charta and to 
the jury to protect their rights as Englishmen. 

After many struggles, a verdict was given in their 
favor ; and for this, in spite of all law, the jurors 
were fined and imprisoned, while nearly a dozen 
knights and barons were on the bench in honor of 
the cause.*= 

George Fox came to these colonies before William 
Penn, speaking to the North and South, everywhere, 
the language of Freedom. In Rhode Island, where 
a severe law was passed against any who should speak 

the names, fills eleven skins of parchment, and is still pre- 
served among the records of the Society in England. The 
Quakers obtained the insertion of the names of other sufferers 
for conscience sake ; among them that of John Bunyan, who 
had been twelve years in confinement. — See Bunyan^s life hy 
Soutliey ; also, Whitehead's Works, 

*See account of this trial in the preface to Penn'^s Folio 
Works. 



10 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

in Town Meeting against the payment of taxes, 
George Fox is represented to have said in the meet- 
ing in relation thereto: ^' Ye are the un worthiest 
men on earth if you do lose the liberty through which 
Christ hath made you free in life and glory."* Qua- 
ker magistrates were elected the next year and free- 
dom of debate restored. 

Several letters were written by the early Quakers 
to Cromwell, dissuading him from accepting the 
crown which was then proposed. George Fox says 
to him, " Oh Oliver keep kingship off thy head, which 
the world would give thee, and earthly crowns under 
thy feet, lest with that thou cover thyself, and so 
lose the power of God.f 

It has been remarked by Gordon, in his history 
of Pennsylvania, that before Beccaria, Montesquieu, 
and others had written on political economy, William 
Penn and his friends had practically carried into 
effect in Pennsylvania the principles they promul- 
gated. Thus they manifested that their pleadings 
for liberty were the result of elevated views respect- 
ing the rights of man.| 

Many of William Penn's confidential letters on 
governmental affairs are still extant in his own hand 
writing, in the Logan family. They breathe but one 
spirit, a desire that the government of the colony, 
over which he presided, should be conducted on the 
principles of justice and truth, as manifested in the 
mind of man. 

The laws of Great Britian recognized one, hundred 

* Bancroft. 

t Journal of Fox. 

:j: Gordons History of Pennsylvania. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 11 

and sixty crimes punishable by death without benefit 
of clergy. Against this barbarous code the English 
Quakers remonstrated, but their remonstrance was in 
vain. Penn received the charter of his colony with 
the condition that it should be subject to British 
laws, but no sooner had the Quakers established their 
government, than they rejected these laws, and ac- 
corded the punishment of death only to wilful mur- 
der.* Queen Ann refused her assent to this new 
legislation. The Colonists, however, retained and 
acted upon their own laws; they were again set aside 
by British power. In the end, the Quaker views pre- 
vailed, and thus Pennsylvania became the pioneer in 
that mighty change in criminal jurisprudence which 
has had so important an influence in the civilized 
world. 

The early history of Pennsylvania furnishes one 
of the best illustrations of the true principles of 
government that the world has ever afi'orded, and it 
was the more striking, in contrast with the bigotted 
exactions that obtained in the colonies to the North 
and the South. 

This country claims to have placed religious liber- 
ty on a permanent basis. So far as this is the case 
we are indebted to the Quakers ; it was they alone 
who seemed to have any true perception of human 
rights. This, we think, will be apparent from a care- 
ful examination of the ecclesiastical laws that were 
in force in all the Colonies, except those where the 
Quaker influence prevailed. 

Gordon seriously asks whence William Penn ob- 

*See the account of Penitentiary System in this country, 
published in New York. 



12 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

tained his superior views of government, and seems 
altogether unable to answer the question. A late 
writer on the history of this great man, thinks 
he has solved the difficulty by ascribing all this 
mental illumination to his intercourse with Al- 
gernon Sidney. Such remarks only betray the 
ignorance of the writers. The science of govern- 
ment is the science of man, and those only can com- 
prehend the principles of government who under- 
stand themselves. The rights of man have their 
foundation in the divine law, which is not learned 
from books, but in the recesses of the soul. Hence, 
the early Quakers, from introversion of mind, illite- 
rate as many of them were, understood as none others 
of their day understood, the principles of civil and 
religious liberty. 

Penn was the friend of Sidney ; though a Quaker 
preacher, he appeared at the hustings, and otherways 
took an active part in promoting the elevation of 
Sidney to a seat in Parliament. He was too wise a 
man not to be benefitted by any suggestions he might 
receive from others, yet the principles upon which they 
acted were wholly different. With Sidney, democracy 
was an aflFair of policy, of expediency, of patriotism. 
Penn*s democracy was the natural effect of a deeply 
rooted religious conviction that there was a divine 
principle in the mind of man, given to him by the 
Author of all good, which, as it enabled him to govern 
himself, was also the first principle in the government 
of society, and this may be assumed to be the only 
basis on which democracy can safely be established. 
But apart from this, there are evidences, not only that 
Penn made objections to some of Sidney's views on 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 13 

government, but that it was mutually agreed by him 
and the Friends who proposed to emigrate, that 
the Quaker plan of government should be adopted. 

One fact would seem to settle this question. The 
most elevated views respecting government were 
boldly promulgated by the early Quakers before 
Penn joined that Society, and probably long before 
Sidney wrote. In the year 1658, more than twenty 
years before the settlement of Pennsylvania, we find 
this declaration : ^' We believe that every transgres- 
sion ought to be punished according to its nature, 
and that the punishment exceed not the greatness of 
the transgression. We believe that the executors of 
the law ought to be just men, and ought to be chosen 
every year or otherwise, by the consent of the people. 
We believe that all governments and rulers ought to 
be accountable to the people, and to the next pre- 
ceding rulers, for all their actions, which may be 
enquired into upon the occasion, and that the chiefest 
of the rulers be subject under the law, and pun- 
ishable by it if they be transgressors, as well as 
the poorest of the people, and thus true judgment 
will be brought forth in the earth,* &c. &c." For 
these sentiments the Quakers were visited with 
the violence of British wrath, and declared to be un- 
worthy the protection of the law, such views being 
considered subversive of all government. 

The history of the intercouse between the In- 
dians of Pennsylvania and the Quakers, is one of 
the most extraordinary that the world can furnish. 
The Indians were called savages from their supposed 

^ See Eberling's History of Pennsylvania. 
f Edward Burrough's Works, folio, page 442. 

2 



14 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

fierce and vindictive nature. They were described 
as blood-thirsty and treacherous. Inother colonies 
they were assailed by sanguinary warfare because 
it was believed no other measures could be maintained 
with them. Yet a handful of Quakers came among 
their most powerful tribes, without sword or musket, 
extended to them the hand of kindness, and re- 
ceived from them all they asked in return, and, 
during the seventy years that the Quakers held 
the control of the government of the province, there 
was uninterrupted peace with the native inhabitants 
of the land, a circumstance unknown elsewhere. 
No sooner did the descendants of the Puritans settle 
in the valley of the Wyoming, than hostilities 
commenced, and eventually led to dreadful mas- 
sacres. 

The impression made on the Indians by the Qua- 
kers, was transmitted from one generation to another, 
and it has been confirmed, by their espousing their 
cause and advocating their rights on all proper oc- 
casions. 

So convinced has the government of the United 
States been of the influence of the Quakers with the 
Indians, that upon more than one occasion they have 
solicited them to take the management of Indian 
afiairs. For a period of neaily half a century, 
James Logan had the almost exclusive governmental 
management of the Indians. We extract from a 
rare book,* a speech of an Indian chief, to shew how 
highly they appreciated the treatment they had re- 
ceived : 

*Collection of Indian Treaties. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, 15 

"Present, the Governor and Council, July 1, 1742, 
Canassatego then spoke by an interpreter as follows: 

Brethren: we called at our old friend James Logan's, 
in our way to this city, and to our grief we found him 
hid in the bushes, and retired, through infirmities, from 
public business. We pressed him to leave his retire- 
ment, and prevailed with him to assist once more at 
your councils. We hope, notwithstanding his age, and 
the effects of a fit of sickness which we understand 
has hurt his constitution, that he may yet continue a 
long time to assist this province with his counsels. He 
is a wise man and a fast friend to the Indians, and we 
desire when his soul goes to God, you may choose in 
his room just such another person, of the same pru- 
dence and ability in counselling, and of the same ten- 
der disposition and affection for the Indians. In testi- 
mony of our gratitude for all his services, and because 
he w^as so good as to leave his country house, and fol- 
low us to town, and be at the trouble at this advanced 
age to attend the council, we present him with this 
bundle of skins." 

In the year 1751 James Logan died. In the year 
1754 the first war between the colony of Pennsylvania 
and the Indians cemmenced. 

Equally remarkable, though in a more limited de- 
gree, were the effects of the principles of peace in 
Rhode Island. 

At a period when one of those desperate wars was 
carried on with the Indians, other New England co- 
lonies, united in a league of defense. Rhode Island, 
then under the influence of the Quakers, rejected 
the idea, and while in the colonies thus leagued to- 
gether one in every twenty of the inhabitants perish- 
ed, and one family in every twenty was burnt out, 



16 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

the island of Rhode Island remained safe, and not an 
inhabitant thereof received personal injury.* 

We make the following beautiful extract from a 
paper written several years before Penn came to this 
country, by one of the first Quaker settlers in West 
Jersey. '^ A providential hand was very visible and 
remarkable in many instances that might be mentioned, 
and the Indians were even rendered our benefactors 
and protectors. Without any carnal weapon we en- 
tered the land and inhabited therein, as safe as if 
there had been thousands of garrisons ; for the Most 
High preserved us from harm both of man and 
beast."* 

These facts demonstrate one truth, that there is a 
principle of government superior to that of war. 

One at least of the governors of North Carolina 
was a member of the Society of Friends, and brought 
the Colony to a considerable extent under Quaker 
influence. It is said that " under his administration 
this American Canaan flowed with milk and honey.'' 
An address of thanks was voted to him, in which it 
is stated, that the happy change that had taken place 
was the efl'ect of his wisdom and labor, and that he 
had "laid the foundation for a most glorious super- 
structure."* 

These are curious events, but we think the steady 
manly courage exhibited by the early Quakers in their 
contests with the British crown much more remark- 
able. They claimed civil and religious liberty, and 
they obtained it. They asked to be allowed to marry 
after their own manner ; to be exempted from oaths ; to 

^History of the Society of Friends in America. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. IT 

be allowed to worship in their own way, which with other 
privileges were granted them in defiance of all the 
usages in the British nation. These concessions were not 
granted without severe conflicts. There were at one 
period 4000 Quakers in the prisons of England. 
Many of them were thrust into dark and dismal dun- 
geons, and upwards of one hundred perished there, a 
sacrifice to their principles. The Quakers would not 
yield, and the government yielded to them. 

The first remonstrance in this country against taxa- 
tion without representation, which was the primary 
cause of the American revolution, was made by the 
Quakers. It is supposed to have been written by Wm. 
Penn ; and is preserved in Smith's History of New 
Jersey. Though the Quakers did not fight, they 
were among the most active in endeavors to obtain 
justice and equal rights from the British crown, by 
peaceful means. 

We make the following extract from a letter of the 
celebrated Dr. Fothergill, * an eminent Quaker in Lon- 
don, dated 18th of 3d mo. 1675, shewing the lively in- 
terest felt by Friends in England in the establishment 
of civil and religious liberty in this country. 

"I have only time to say before our mutual 
acquaintance. Dr. Franklin, leaves us, that yesterday 
Thomas Corbyn, Jacob Hagen, David Barclay, and 
myself, by direction of the Meeting for Sufferings, pre- 
sented a petition to the King, entreating that every 
means might be tried to eff*ect a reconciliation with 
America without bloodshed. We were favorably re 
ceived, at least in appearance. Friends here are in* 

* This letter was addressed to "Wm. Logan. The originals 
with others of the same character, is in my possession. 

2* 



18 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

general unanimous and anxious for the preservation 
of the civil and religious liberty of our Friends in 
America, as on the preservation of theirs, perhaps 
our own may under Providence depend.'* 

<^ I shall request Dr. Franklin to get a few of you 
together. He knows my sentiments fully, and the pains 
that David Barclay and myself have taken in these 
affairs. May I speak to thee in confidence, I think, 
the (ministry) wish to reduce all America to the stand- 
ard of Quebec and Canada, an abject, slavish people, 
to be governed solely by the will of the King. 

The Quakers supposed that if they had possessed the 
control of the Government here, the objects sought 
for would have been attained by peaceable means ; it 
might have been so. It is curious to contemplate the 
powerful effect of moral courage perseveringly exerted 
in a righteous cause. 

The Quakers who settled in New England were the 
first assertors in this country of the true principles of 
both civil and religious liberty. Their views were 
considered by the sectarians of the day as involving 
the destruction of all human rights. It was the Qua- 
kers who first rem^onstrated on the wrong of negro 
slavery. Two documents on the subject are extant, 
written by Friends more than 160 years ago. The 
American Quakers were the first to liberate their 
slaves. The English Quakers were the first to form 
the association which became the nucleus of that 
which finally achieved emancipation throughout the 
British Empire. They are believed to have been the 
first in England who totally rejected the idea of forced 
payments for religion. 

In the present generation, encouraged by some of 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 19 

the most eminent men of Europe, they were to be 
found at the Congresses of Vienna and Verona, plead- 
ing for the Waldenses and others who had suffered 
for their conscientious opinions. 

In promulgating their views, the early Friends had 
a severe task to perform. They were surrounded by 
bigots and fanatics, who did not understand them, 
and who misinterpreted their actions ; yet they bore 
themselves bravely in the storm. It would have been 
easy for them to have obtained the friendship of 
Cromwell, and of the English monarchs, of the 
Catholics, the Episcopalians, or the Independents, 
had they swerved to accommodate their views ; but, 
unmoved by the contending elements around them, 
they stood manfully for the Truth — condemned them 
all as builders on sandy foundations, and were perse- 
cuted by each as each obtained the sway. The his- 
tory of the world scarcely furnishes a more elevated 
heroism than was manifested by them in their devo- 
tion to truth. 

The early career of the Quakers was exceedingly 
honorable. It was marked by great strength of cha- 
racter, and has been productive of the most important 
benefits to the civilized world. 

Our statements are due to the truth of history, and 
particularly so, when, from the supposed success of 
the system of American government, there is a dis- 
position to claim that other colonies were the pio- 
neers in the great cause of civil and religious liberty, 
and thus wrest from Friends that credit which is 
justly their due. Yet there were many marks of de- 
cided fanaticism amongst them. 



20 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

The rise of the Society was at a period peculiar in 
the British annals. Enthusiasm and fanaticism run 
riot. It was an age of hypocrisy and cant — called 
in derision the reign of the saints. There were ranters 
and mad enthusiasts of all kinds ; no society or class 
of men escaped their influence. Friends suffered in 
common with others from these disorderly spirits, but 
it was said by high authority that had it not been 
for the Quakers, Ranterism would have overrun the 
land.* The doctrine of Friends is of a nature to en- 
courage enthusiasm ; thousands flocked to their meet- 
ings, and it seemed as if all the world would become 
Quakers ; some of their eminent preachers were in 
the army, and George Fox in one of his addresses 
alluded to the good service Friends had performed as 
soldiers. 

In the first edition of the works of George Fox 
are two passages, showing that he believed in witch- 
craft. Wm. Penn says, <' several have gone naked 
into steeple houses, markets and cities, as a sign to 
the people of their spiritual nakedness ;" and he 
appears to justify them therein. f Edward Burroughs 

*I)r. Gell and a person of worldly quality told Wm. Penn 
that, had not the Quakers come, the Ranters would have over- 
run the nation. — Perm's Works. 

'\ Wm. Penn^s words are, " we deny not but several have 
been moved of the Lord to go naked into steeple houses, 
markets and cities, for a sign to the people, but more espe- 
cially to the priests, of the nakedness of their spiritual condi- 
tion ; and as stript as they were of their clothes, would the 
Lord strip them of their deceitful garments.^' The same thing 
occurred in New England, where two or three persons stript 
themselves as a sign of the nakedness of the people. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 21 

speaks approvingly of a tailor taking possession of a 
pulpit on a First-day morning, and being there at 
work when the preacher came to occupy it. Robert 
Barclay walked through Edinburg clothed in sack- 
cloth and covered with ashes. Fox walked barefoot 
through the city of Litchfield, repeating again and 
again, "wo unto the bloody city of Litchfield." 
Fox was called by some of his associates the " Son 
of Righteousness," and his friends "Kings, Princes 
and Prophets." A letter from Mary Fisher, 
still extant, is directed to " George Fox, the de- 
liverer." 

There were other eccentricities of the same kind, 
but we have seen nothing in them to invalidate 
the character of the early Quakers. That they were 
enthusiastic, there is no doubt ; and this was often 
carried to excess. There are marks enough that 
they were not perfect; this they did not claim. They 
were pioneers in a great cause, without clearly com- 
prehending at all times the strength of their own 
position. 

Yet withal, these eccentricities were not so great 
as those of some other religious denominations ; wit- 
ness the Anabaptists of Munster. 

In order to understand these things, we must recur 
to the particular excitement of the period. The 
Quakers were goaded on to desperation by the cruel- 
ties that were heaped upon them, and in this way a 
religious frenzy was brought about which weak minds 
were not able to withstand. The whole British at- 
mosphere at that period was tainted with cant and 
fanaticism. This was carried so far that it was deemed 



22 THE SOCIETY OF FEIENDS. 

wrong to give children any names but those derived 
from the Scriptures.* 

Neither do we pretend to say that the early pro- 
ceedings of the Quakers in Pennsylvania were perfect; 
that certainly was not the case ; perfection is not 
likely to be arrived at by men who are not themselves 
perfect. 

There were various causes of disturbance to the 
early colony. Its form of government was compara- 
tively new ; the peculiar Quaker features of it were 
deemed highly objectionable to those not of that So- 
ciety. Serious complaints were made to the British 
Government, representing that it was murder to hang 
a man on the verdict of a jury sitting under an aflBr- 
mation instead of an oath, which the British law re- 
quired. The pecuniary embarrassments of William 
Penn, led to party views respecting his Governmental 
and Proprietary rights. 

It has often been asserted that liberty of conscience 
prevailed in Maryland, settled by the Roman Catho- 
lics, and in Rhode Island, settled by the Baptists. 

A broad public declaration in favor of liberty of 
conscience was made by Lord Baltimore, honorable 

*The name of the Speaker of the Long Parliament was 
"Praise God .Barebones.'' The names of a jury in Sussex 
are thus given in Broome's Travels: 
Accepted Trevor, Keturn Spelman, 

Redeemed Compton, Be-Faithful Joiner, 
Faint-not Hewit, Fly-Debate Roberts, 

Make-Peace Heaton, Fight-the-good-Fight-of Faith White, 
God-Reward Smart, More-Fruit Fowler, 

Hope-for Bending, Stand-fast-on-High Stringer, 

Earth Adams, Graceful Herding, 

Called Lower, Weep-not Billing, 

Kill-Sin Pimple, Meek Brewer, 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 23 

alike to himself and his Catholic allies ; it was, how- 
ever, never fully carried into eflfect. William Penn 
had conferences with Lord Baltimore upon the sub- 
ject ; he promised to adopt measures to relieve the 
Quaker population, which he failed to fulfil. They 
afterwards presented a petition, in which they say, 
«« nor are our sufferings like to terminate in our own 
persons, but also extend to the ruining of our wives 
and children." The assembly decided favorably. An 
act was passed by the two Houses for the relief of the 
Quakers ; Lord Baltimore refused to sign it, and it 
was not for more than half a century after the colony 
was settled, that liberty of conscience was estab- 
lished.* 

Many acts impairing liberty of conscience occurred 
under the administration of Roger Williams and the 
Baptists of Rhode Island. Williams wrote in favor 
of this liberty, so did King Charles and many others, 
without understanding it. It may be sufficient to ad- 
vert to one fact, which is conclusive on the subject. 
On the 1st of March, 1663, a law was passed, which 
continued in force until the period of the American 
Revolution, which excluded Roman Catholics from 
being admitted as freemen in the Colony. f 

In New York, beside other acts of intolerance, the 
Roman Catholics were banished from the Colony 
under the pain of perpetual imprisonment,^ and, if 
we mistake not, one priest suffered the extreme pen- 
alty of the law. 

^ History of Society of Friends in America. 

■j- Holmes's Annals. 

t History of New York, 



24 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

In East Jersey, settled by the Calvinists, liberty of 
conscience was denied to the Papists. In the Caro- 
linas and Georgia, there were also disabilities against 
particular classes of men. 

The laws of the New England colonies have been al- 
ready adverted to ; those of Virginia were equally in- 
tolerant, and they continued in full force upwards of 
one hundred years. ^'If no execution," says Jeffer- 
son, ^<took place there, it was not owing to the moder- 
ation of the church or the spirit of the Legisla- 
ture."* 

The public career of the Quakers admits of 
many interesting illustrations which it is not consist- 
ent with the design of these pages to enlarge upon. 
When they spoke of the light of truth in the mind 
as the true governing principle of man, they pro- 
claimed the democratic element on which the govern- 
ment of these States is founded. The world seems 
astonished at its success. If we could suppose this 
individual principle would cease to operate, or opera- 
ting should be disregarded, then democratic govern- 
ments would prove a failure. 

The principles of the American government are 
inherent in the doctrine of individualism, which is the 
foundation on which the Quakers build. Men fight 
for what they call freedom. It is consistent with their 
present state that they should do so ; yet what 
they really claim is the right of each to judge for 
himself by that evidence of truth which is only found 
in individual minds. 

History records eleven battles, several of which 

* Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 25 

occurred before the Christian era, which permanent- 
ly influenced the destinies of the human race. Here 
is a peaceful event ; the rise of a small society openly 
proclaiming the democratic principle, and practically 
illustrating its applicability to government, which 
already has, and is, we believe, destined yet to exert 
a greater influence on mankind than either of these 
sanguinary conflicts, or probably than all of them 
combined. 

With these views we have no hesitation in ascrib- 
ing to the Quakers a greater influence in establishing 
the liberties of this country and the system of equal 
rights, than to the patriots of the American Revolu- 
tion ; these latter but carried out ideas familiar to 
the minds of the people. It was among the Qua- 
kers that many of these ideas originated. Bancroft 
says, " this is the praise of William Penn, that in an 
age which had seen a popular revolution shipwreck 
popular liberty, among selfish factions ; which had 
seen Hugh Peters and Henry Vane perish by the 
hangman's cord and the axe ; in an age when Sidney 
nourished the pride of patriotism rather than the sen- 
timent of philanthropy; when Russel stood for the 
liberties of his order, and not for new enfranchise- 
ments; and Shaftsbury and Locke thought government 
should rest on property — Penn did not despair of 
humanity, and though all history and experience de- 
nied the sovereignty of the people, dared to cherish 
the noble idea of man's capacity for self govern- 
ment. * >K * There is nothing in the history of 
the human race like the confidence which the simple 
virtues and institutions of William Penn inspired. 
Penn never gave counsel at variance with popular 

3 



26 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

rights. * * * England to-day confesses his sa- 
gacity, and is doing honor to his genius. He came 
00 soon for su ccess, and he was aware of it. After 
niore than a century, the laws which he reproved 
began gradually to be repealed ; and the principle 
which he developed, sure of immortality, is slowly, 
but firmly, asserting its power over the Legislature 
of Great Britain. * * * * Every charge of 
hypocrisy, of selfishness, of vanity, of dissimulation, 
of credulous confidence ; every form of reproach from 
virulent abuse to cold apology ; every ill name from 
Tory and Jesuit, to Blasphemer and Infidel, has been 
used against Penn ; but the candor of his character, 
always triumphed over calumny. His fame is now 
wide as the world ; he is one of the few who have 
gained abiding glory.'^* 

Penn was but the embodiment of the Quaker idea. 
Democracy is not inevitably a good. Free govern- 
ment is an evil if it rests upon the passions and pre- 
judices of men. In such a case one despot is better 
than a thousand, because he has less power for evil. 
The Quaker idea was that democracy is a consequence 
of virtue, not its cause. 

Friends cast off at once from the prevalent Calvinis- 
tic doctrine of the inherent depravity of man, and con- 
fiding in individual illumination, they allied themselves 
with what they believed to be the great principles of 
human nature as manifested in their own minds. This 
will be found to be the secret of all greatness of mind 
of all true philosophy. It is this that makes a man a 
man, and not an automaton. It is a philosophical 

♦Hifltory of the United States. 



THE SOCIETY OE FRIENDS. 27 

truth applicable to all times and to all countries, that 
man, to understand the rights of others, must first 
comprehend his own. 

Whenever Friends acted upon the broad principles 
of Christian philanthropy, their works have manifested 
enlarged views of human nature. When, in their 
meeting capacity, they have been surrounded by pre- 
scriptions and laws formed by past generations, they 
have descended to the level of sectarians, and became 
narrow minded and severe. It is for us to mark the 
contrast ; we shall endeavor to do so with strict im- 
partiality, and to trace as far as is in our power, the 
causes of the present declining state of the Society, 
and the schisms and contentions that are manifest 
therein. 



DOCTRINE OF FRIENDS. ♦ 

The Doctrines of men are always interesting, be- 
cause it is probable no man entertains wrong opinions, 
who is not in some degree, injured thereby. They 
seem, however, to have very little relation to our true 
religious character. We may assume it to be an un- 
changeable truth, that the justice of God in making 
man accountable for his conduct in life, has not left 
the principles by which he ought to be governed to 
be the sport of chance. All our knowledge and per- 
ceptions indicate that throughout the human family, 
there are fixed and permanent ideas, in the fulfilment 
of which is comprised all the duties of man. 



28 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

There are doctrines in abundance which are deemed 
essential by particular classes of men. They may 
increase or retard our comfort or happiness here, but 
they appear to be wholly unessential to a religious life. 

The principles of men may properly be divided into 
Paganism, which is materialism ; and Christianity, 
which is spiritualism ; and they are so intermixed, 
that it maybe questioned in which family of man each 
prevails most. Nay, they appear to be intermingled 
in individual minds in every variety and possible de- 
gree. Men speak of the legal and gospel dispensa- 
tion ; they are but figures of speech, which mean the 
same thing. They prevail now as they ever prevailed, 
rather in individual minds than in periods of time. 

In a late address from the Orthodox Society of 
Quakers in Philadelphia, there is this sentiment, 
<^ The Society of Friends is a unit, holding certain doc- 
trines and maintaining certain testimonies, fixed and 
settled; plain and easily understood by its members.'* 
Herein is exemplified one fact, that from preconceived 
opinions men become unable to understand truth. 
The Society of Friends is not a unit, it does not hold 
certain testimonies that are fixed and settled, or that 
are plain and easily understood by its members. 

To incorporate into a moral system, with a progres- 
sive Society, testimonies that are fixed and settled, 
is to attach to it the seeds of its own decay and final 
dissolution. 

The revolutions which take place in nations and 
sects, have generally their origin in the depths of the 
human mind. Those that occurred in Europe in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are directly to 
be traced to the yearnings of the heart after freedom ; 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 29 

to the endeavor to throw off those fixed doctrines that 
had been settled upon them. As these were abolished 
and others of a permanent character took their place, 
they formed successively the seeds of fresh convulsions 
and revolutions. 

It has been the profession of the members of the 
Society of Friends, that it has no established creed. 
The existence of an organized society implies a gov- 
ernment, but not necessarily, a creed, in the usual 
acceptation of the term. The admission of liberty of 
conscience, and the right of private judgment, is in 
direct opposition to that character of fixed faith which 
a creed implies, and the attempt to form one is a 
contradiction in the organization of the Society of 
Friends, and has led to great embarrassment. In- 
stead of written articles in which there would have 
been no ambiguity, the members of the Society are 
advised to seek for a standard of faith in the writings 
of early Quakers. 

These contain no such standard, one man writes in 
one way, another in another ; nay, the same individual 
writes differently at different times. 

If we seek to sustain Trinitarian or Unitarian doc- 
trines, the fallibility or infallibility of the Scriptures, 
the efficacy and necessity of the death of Christ, as a 
means of salvation, or the sufficiency of the grace of 
God in the soul for these purposes, abundant authority 
for each may be found in the Quaker writings, almost 
as plainly set forth as language can make it. One 
calls Christ our Elder Brother ; another, our Lord and 
Master. 

Not only is their language different on different 



30 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

occasions, but" the natural deductions from principles 
which they considered unalterable, were in direct con- 
tradiction to points of doctrine which they attempted 
to establish. They were continually reproached with 
being deists. They denied this charge and asserted 
plain, unequivocal Trinitarian doctrine, yet they re- 
jected the term Trinity, not because of its unsuitable- 
ness, but because it was not found in the Scriptures. 

A belief in the sufficiency of the grace of God in 
the soul as a means of salvation, is abundantly testi- 
fied of in the writings of the early Quakers. The 
preaching of this doctrine by them electrified Great 
Britain, and, in despite of all opposition, thousands 
and tens of thousands flocked to them, operated upon 
by a power and enthusiasm that seemed to know no 
limits. 

This is plain doctrine, easily understood, but there 
has been added to it so many ambiguities, contradic- 
tions, explanations and evasions, that we think no 
rational mind can decide from their writings what the 
real belief of the Society is on this first and important 
article of their faith. 

Probably no Socisty of so limited an extent, has 
furnished such an abundance of expositions, commen- 
taries and explanations of faith and doctrine as that 
of the Quakers. The catalogue of their works printed 
in the year 1708, amounted to upwards of four thou- 
sand. It was estimated that an average of one thou- 
sand copies of each was published, making an aggre- 
gate of four millions of books. 

Their opponents were not idle. One man alone, 
formerly a member among them, issued upwards of 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 31 

eighty separate essays, in opposition to them.* Many 
other publications, opposing and condemning them, 
were made. Most of these produced replies and re- 
joinders, under the authority of the ministers and 
elders of the Society. Upwards of fifty pages of 
^'Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History" are occupied in 
refutation of a few observations made by the author, 
which were considered by Friends unjust to the Society. 
If we add to this catalogue the innumerable works 
that have been printed since that period, we shall 
have an array of Quaker publications to an extent 
little suspected by the general readers of the Society. 
It is doubtful whether among them all there is to be 
found one plain unprejudiced exposition of Quakerism. 
The reason is obvious ; the earliest writings of Friends 
were from the spontaneous movements of earnest and 
sincere minds. They were not uniform — often marked 
by fanaticism. When the Society became organized, 
uniformity was deemed essential. A censorship of 
the press was established, which often expunged ma- 
terial passages, and changed others to suit the feelings 
of the age ; hence they became sectarian. If there 
was a sentiment in them different from the standard set 
up, it has been the invariable practice either to sup- 
press the work altogether, or to expunge the objec- 
tionable parts. No comment or criticism on the 
imperfections of the Society or system was ever 
allowed to be printed by a member, while the repre- 

*This was Francis Bugg. He states that lie Toluntarily re- 
linquished his membership, but he was disowned for publish- 
ing some of these works, and he was afterwards employed 
by the bishops to traduce the Quakers. Those of his writings 
which I have seen are exceedingly scurrilous. 



32 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

sentations of their opponents were ofien made in an 
unfair spirit, and were not to be relied on. 

The doctrines of the Society, in its early days, 
were decidedly in advance of all others in the Chris- 
tian world. Those of other societies, have, in some 
degree, approached them, and Friends have, in some 
instances, retrograded, so that the contrast is not now 
so great as formerly, yet we have no hesitation in say- 
ing that the Quaker doctrines, as a whole, are still in 
advance of those of any other society. Whatever 
defects there may be in them, and however feebly they 
may be carried out, we consider that they have their 
foundation in those principles which must ultimately 
prevail in the world. 

Yet, the Society has not escaped the influence of 
Paganism. In considering their doctrines, we shall 
first advert to their spirituality, in which all their 
strength consisted ; and second, to their materiality, 
as manifested in their dependence upon outward or 
physical things. 

The leading doctrine of the society is that of the 
universality and sufficiency of the Grace of God in 
the mind of man, as the means of perfecting his 
moral and religious character. 

In an address of the early Quakers, of " Things 
pertaining to Religion," proposed to the " Royal 
Society,*' they thus explain themselves : 

" Observe the diflFerence between the religion which 
God hath taught us, and led us into, and the religion 
of all men upon earth besides. Our religion stands 
wholly out of that which all their religion stands in. 
Their religion stands in a scriptural relation ; but our 
religion stands in a principle, wherein the Spirit of 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 33 

light appeareth, where vre hear the voice, and see 
the express image of the Heavenly One, (even God 
himself,) and we know things, not from an outward 
relation, but from their inward nature, virtue and 
power. Yea, here we must profess we so know things 
that we are fully satisfied about them, and could not 
doubt concerning them, though there had never been 
a word of Scripture wrote.'* 

Isaac Pennington uses almost verbatim the same 
language. " Our religion," he says, '' stands wholly 
out of that which their religion stands in. Our reli- 
gion stands in a principle which changes the mind, 
and we so know things, and could not doubt concerning 
them, though there had never been a word or letter 
written of them,"* 

The same views are abundantly spoken of by other 
writers among early Friends, though often more dif- 
fusely, yet entirely suflScient to establish the fact that 
the Quaker faith was considered to rest on a princi- 
ple independent of outward circumstances. Above 
all, it is the inevitable deduction from premises that 
were freely granted. The idea was thus exemplified 
by Edward Burroughs. In answer to a question as to 
who had embraced the Quaker doctrine, he says : 

<« David was holy, Moses was holy, Jeremiah was 
holy, with many more testified in the Scripture that 
were of the same faith with us, and of the same doc- 
trines, and principles, and practices ; for them- 
selves were Quakers, as their own writings make 
manifest, "t 

* Pennington's works, part 2d, page 54. 
•|- Burrough's works, page 165. 



34 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

If Quakerism is a principle, as declared by Pen- 
nington and others, then also is Christianity a princi- 
ple, or Quakerism is not Christianity. Friends be- 
lieve both parts of the proposition, and herein is a 
beautiful and broad ground of truth, worthy of all 
acceptation. We consider it to be a doctrine that 
stands upon an immutable basis that nothing can 
change. And that all the additions and explanations 
which Friends give to it, are in their nature untrue, 
and calculated to do harm. A subject so interesting 
should be examined free from sectarian bias, or preju- 
dice of any kind. 

The faculties of men are two fold ; first, those 
relating to the outward senses. 

Second, those that are purely intellectual. 

It admits of demonstration that the existence of 
material or physical things are made known to the 
mind through material means alone, unless from mi- 
raculous interference, of which we know nothing. 
The eye sees, the ear hears, and we have taste, &c., 
each possessing physical mediums of their own nature 
by which impressions are conveyed to the mind of the 
objects which they recognize. These mediums, which 
are called nerves, are well understood by anatomists — 
so far as they are destroyed, sensation ceases. The 
eye may appear perfect, but unless it has its appro- 
priate nerve there can be no vision. We see a tree 
or hear a voice, and their existence is demonstrated 
through means adapted by an all wise Providence to 
the end designed. Of this character are all historical 
truths; we believe them on the evidence of the senses, 
and our belief in them may be destroyed in the same 
way when stronger evidence comes to contradict 
them. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 35 

There is another class of faculties, which may be 
called intellectual, as far as we can judge, wholly in- 
dependent of the outward senses. The distinction be- 
tween each is clearly marked. It is through these in- 
tellectual faculties, that man comes to know himself 
and to have a knowledge of his own existence. The 
most acute philosophers and metaphysicians have 
come to the conclusion, that there is a self- conscious- 
ness that can be traced to no other source than intui- 
tive perception. The more this subject is examined 
into, by candid and serious minds, the more firm we 
think will be the conviction that all the knowledge 
we can desire upon intellectual subjects is received 
intuitively by the operations of the mind itself, by 
powers which it holds independent of the outward 
senses, and which are in their nature eternal. These 
faculties are a sense of love, of beauty, of truth, of 
harmony, and the like. We have reason to believe 
that they are received into the mind by spiritual me- 
diums adapted to their own nature. Unlike those of 
the senses, no power of the anatomist has ever disco- 
vered any nerves or outward means of communicating 
with them ; being intellectual, they partake of the 
character of the mind itself, and receive their im- 
pressions through an influence independent of the ma- 
terial senses. If we admit the idea of a self conscious- 
ness which has not its origin in material things, we 
admit the reality of Divine Revelation. If it be ad- 
mitted that there is but one source of virtue, and that 
man can receive no knowledge of it except intuitively, 
it must also be admitted as a necessary consequence, 
that the whole strength of our religious character is 
derived from that source alone. 



36 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

We may read of virtue, and be familiar with the 
best works on truth and religion, and listen to the 
best sermons ; but unless there are corresponding 
feelings within us, they are utterly void as respects us. 

We lay it down as an axiom, on which we found our 
argument, that every religious truth comes from the 
immediate revelation of God. 

What we hear or read may give new turns to our 
thoughts, may awaken the mind to its own conscious- 
ness, but the centre, the foundation, must first be laid 
by the power of the Most High, or all words are vain. 
This divine influence may with great propriety be call- 
ed the revelation of God, the proper source of all 
true philosophy and vital religion. It may be called 
the moral sense, the light of truth, or by any other 
name that may serve to designate a purely spiritual 
or intellectual faculty. It is immediately, as we be- 
lieve, through this influence, that all true instruction 
of an intellectual nature comes. The eyes of the 
brute creation may be as competent to behold a fine 
river, or a beautiful sunset as our own, but if they have 
no sense of beauty, they cannot partake of that enjoy- 
ment which those objects awaken in the minds of in- 
tellectual beings. Thus we suppose they can have no 
knowledge of truth, harmony, &c., and herein is de- 
monstrated the true character of man. One outward, 
partaking of the animal nature. The other spiritual, 
partaking of the nature of the divine mind. 

We think it admits of the most indubitable proof, that 
the intellectual powers in others, are only compre- 
hended by like powers in ourselves. 

This is one of the most beautiful ideas connected 
with moral philosophy, and with vital religion. Just 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 37 

in proportion as the mind cultivates and understands 
its own intellectual faculties, it comprehends them in 
others. Evil and good are recognised in others by 
the same influence in ourselves, and there is reason to 
believe that a mind wholly pure could have no concep- 
tion of evil, or that one wholly malevolent (could such a 
mind exist) would have no conception of virtue. 

James Naylor, one of the early Quakers, near the 
close of his life, thus illustrates this idea. 

" There is a spirit which I feel that delights to do 
no evil, nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to en- 
dure all things in the hope to enjoy its own in the 
end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, 
and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or what- 
ever is of a nature contrary to itself. It sees to the 
end of all temptations ; as it bears no evil in itself, so 
it conceives none in thought to any other. If it be 
betrayed, it bears it ; for its ground and spring is the 
mercies and forgiveness of God. Its crown is meek- 
ness, its life is everlasting love unfeigned, and it takes 
its kingdom with entreaty and not with contention, 
and keeps it by lowliness of mind. In God alone it 
can rejoice, though none else can regard it, or can own 
its life. It is conceived in sorrow and brought forth 
without any to pity it ; nor doth it murmur at grief 
and oppression. It never rejoiceth but through suf- 
fering ; for with the world's joy it is murdered. I 
found it alone, being forsaken; I have fellowship there- 
in with them who lived in dens and desolate places in 
the earth, who through death obtained this resurrec- 
tion and eternal holy life.'' 

These poetic expressions are perhaps not exceeded 
for beauty and sublimity in the whole compass of 

4 



38 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

English literature. They portray in unmistakable 
language not only the union of a pure mind with the 
divine harmony, but also that there is a state which, 
as it '' bears no evil in itself^ conceives none in thought 
to any other'' 

The idea that man can comprehend intellectual 
truths in others only through the medium of the like 
intellectual truth in his own mind, is fully exemplified 
by ecclesiastical writers, though many of them are so 
limited in their views, as to apply it only to the 
Scriptures. If true at all, it is universally so. True 
philosophy is divine wisdom; what is sound in the one 
case, is equally so in the other. Luther says, " the 
Scriptures are to be understood but by that very 
spirit by which they were writ.""^ Erasmus : " What 
man sets forth by man's device, may be received by 
man's wit, but the things that are set forth by the 
Holy Ghost, requireth an interpreter inspired with a 
like spirit.'* William Penn and all the early Friends 
use similar language ; " the spirit of truth must be the 
rule for our believing and understanding the Scrip- 

tures."t 

These observations apply only to the intellectual 
character of the Scriptures, to the spiritual truths con- 
tained therein. There are certain marked features 
in the character of man, which must be referred to a 
higher principle, more equable and just than can be 
derived from education and tradition, be that what it 
may. It is found among the Esquimaux of the North, 
and the Hottentots of the South ; among untutored 
savages, and civilized men. The deaf and the dumb, 

* Luther, 3d vol., folio, 169. 
f Perm's Works, 1st. vol, 599. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 39 

and those who have added to these infirmities the want 
of sight, are found to possess a vital intellectual ener- 
gy, a strong sense of justice and right, that can be 
referred to no other source than a communion with the 
Divine mind. 

In a report of the managers of a benevolent insti- 
tution in Philadelphia the present year, we find the 
following : '^ It gives us great pleasure to say, that 
after laboring for three years and a half among those 
who have been considered the most hardened, the 
most degraded, and certainly the most hopeless part 
of the community, that we have never yet met with 
one who was utterly abandoned to evil. However 
sunk and depraved they may be, however little con- 
sciousness they may possess of the original divinity of 
their natures, yet the Almighty still keeps one spark 
alive in their bosoms, which may be recognized even 
in their lowest condition.'' 

This report, written for no party purpose, but sim- 
ply as a statement of truth, manifests the omnipresence 
of a power in the mind which we believe is ever seek- 
ing its own nature. 

It was a remarkable hullucination of Locke, the 
sceptic Hobbes, and all others of that school, and it 
has been followed by all traditionary Christians, that 
man can obtain the knowledge of intellectual truths 
through reflection, and the association of ideas re- 
ceived through the senses. They have thus built up 
a superstructure without any solid foundation. 

Man cannot reflect unless he has ideas to reflect 
upon, and ideas or perceptions of intellectual truth 
cannot be conveyed to the mind through outward me- 
diums. Just so far as the Society of Friends have 



40 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

adopted the ideas of Locke, they have departed from 
their spiritual faith. 

Friends rest their evidence of Divine Revelation, 
first, on individual consciousness ; next on the Scrip- 
tures. We have endeavored to show that it is also a 
philosophical truth which no sophistry can change, no 
human ingenuity can evade. Some of them adopted, 
at times, almost in its full sense, the beautiful scrip- 
ture doctrine of sonship. " All who are led by the 
spirit of God are sons of God.'' In Fox's trial at 
Lancaster he said, ^' The saints are all one in the 
Father and the Son; they are of his bone and his 
flesh." In one of his addresses to Oliver Cromwell, 
Fox says, " I am moved to give this forth for the 
truth's sake from him whom the world calls George 
Fox, who is the son of God."* This passage has been 
greatly objected to as blasphemous. We see nothing 
blasphemous in it. It is the same kind of blasphemy 
which every one adopts, who says, <«our Father who 
art in Heaven;" it is the blasphemy (if they will have 
this revolting name) of the New Testament. 

George Fox, the younger, says: ««I, the light which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world, am 
the true eternal God; by me all things are apparent, "f 

Crane, one of the early Quakers, speaking of wor- 
ship uses this emphatic language: " God praises God; 

*See Leslie's Ecclesiastical History. Also, Encyclopedia Bri- 
tannioa. There was a lame attempt by the English Quakers to 
show that this extract was not true. We consider it rests on 
unquestionable evidence, and is in harmony with other senti- 
ments of Fox, or we would not quote it. 

f See this passage as explained and quoted by Penn, 2d vol. 

295. 



THE SOCIETY OE FEIENDS. 41 

his praise and worship forever is from Thee unto Thee." 
He adds, '<• If you cannot read this, let your mouths 
be stopped forever;'"^ corresponding with the Scripture 
passage, " the spirit itself maketh intercession for 
us." 

The same form of expression was often used by 
James Naylor, and may be found in the account of 
his trial for blasphemy in the English State Trials. 
He rejected and disclaimed altogether the adulations 
which were bestowed on him by silly persons, but I 
am not aware that he ever denied the doctrines which 
he preached, and surely he had no occasion to do so. 
Many of his sentiments as displayed on that trial are 
exceedingly beautiful. In answer to a question he 
says, " Where God is manifested in the flesh, there is 
the everlasting Son of Righteousness ;" and being 
asked twice whether God was manifested in him, an- 
swered both times, " I have no kingdom in this world, 
yet a kingdom I have, and he that hath redeemed me, 
hath redeemed me to be king for ever;" yet avowing 
again and again that it was not he, a poor weak man. 
'' As a creature," he says, '' I deny any such thing." 
'' It is not I, but the divine mind that is manifested 
in me." " I do abhor that any of that honor which 
is due to God, should be given to me as a creature. "f 
and thus said Fox and the Friends who wrote in this 
way. 

* Account of Babylon's Merchants, by Richard Crane. 

t The works of James Naylor would be extremely interest- 
ing, could we see them as they were originally written. With 
all his foibles, he seems to have been an eminently enlighten- 
ed man. As they were republished by the Yearly Meeting of 
London, in 1716, they are of very little value. 

4* 



42 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

The American Quakers, at the time of the schism 
of George Keith — and among them was the estimable 
deputy Governor Thomas Lloyd — openly avoved in 
meeting, that they knew of no Christ Jesus as a me- 
diator in Heaven without them, but the grace of God 
within them.* 

Job Scott, one of the most eminently devoted Qua- 
kers of the last century, thus writes : 

<' If I knew Christ no otherwise than they (the 
professors) teach, describe and declare him, I think 
I must be either a skeptic or deist. I can never see 
the connection between the sufferings of a body of 
flesh seventeen or eighteen hundred years ago, and 
the salvation of an immortal soul at this day. I 
think the systems by some promulgated, for the 
gospel of salvation by Jesus, as full fraught with ab- 
surdity as almost anything I have met with in Ma- 
hometanism, or in the ancient mythology of the hea- 
then.'' He elsewhere says : '' I would as soon trust 
my immortal state in the profession of deism, as upon 
the common notion of salvation by Christ." Kegard- 
ing his own faith on this subject he says: " This is the 
great mystery of godliness — God manifest in the 
flesh, is not confined to the flesh of that one body.^f 

George Fox said in an address to Cromwell: " My 
weapons are not carnal but spiritual, and my kingdom 
is not of this world, therefore with carnal weapons I 
do not fight.'' In his Battledore he says: " All lan- 
guage is to me no more than dust, who was before lan- 
guage was." Again, in his "News from the North:" 
<« Jesus Christ is the door that all must pass through, 

* Works of George Keith. 

t Journal of Job Scott — Salvation by Christ. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 43 

and he is the porter that opens the door. I am the 
door that ever was, the same Christ, yesterday, to-day 
and forever." 

Wm. Penn in his address to the Protestants asks, 
" -what is Christ but meekness, justice, mercy, pa- 
tience, and virtue in perfection ?" 

I desire calmly but seriously to consider this doc- 
trine. If it be not true, then the whole ground taken 
respecting the Scriptures, that they can only be un- 
derstood by the same spirit that gave them forth, to 
which we have before alluded, is also untrue. We 
believe both to be true ; that man can only under- 
stand the divine spirit in another, by the same spirit 
in himself, and this by an unchangeable law of our 
moral being. Man knows Christ to be the Son of God, 
by knowing himself to be such — each in degree as 
his mind is prepared therefor. There is no mys- 
tery in this doctrine; every one practically believes 
in it, in proportion as he is under the influence of the 
Divine Spirit. It is by sympathy that men are able to 
comprehend each other. Even the vicious and de- 
praved, if such there be, call to their fellows and sym- 
pathize with each other in their mutual depravity. 

This doctrine is in accordance with that of Pen- 
nington, that Quakerism is a principle, and the ne- 
cessarily corresponding proposition that vital Chris- 
tianity is also a principle. Thus Christ himself said, 
" He that believeth on me, believeth not on me but on 
him that sent me." Thus also is understood those 
beautiful expressions, "I and my Father are one;" 
" he that seeth me seeth him that sent me." <' I am the 
resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever 
liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 



44 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

The great idea was, that the true Christ " is the 
Power of God and the Wisdom of God," and that 
it is his spirit, or rather the spirit of the divine mind, 
that is the true Saviour, and that the death of 
Jesus on the cross is an historical fact, having no 
essential reference to us ; that Christianity is a prin- 
ciple to be realized and experienced in the mind, and 
not to be learned from a book. That it is not a 
written code, and that, though Christ may be spoken 
of as its representative, yet it has no necessary con- 
nexion with the flesh and blood of Jesus of Nazareth, 
but that the real Christ is the Logos or indwelling 
word ; that it had not its origin at the commence- 
ment of the Christian era, but was from the begin- 
ning ; that all men have ever participated in its 
benefits in proportion as they are redeemed ; that 
the gospel has nothing to do with the book that 
bears that name, but is the power of God ; and that, 
through the influence of this power, men are saved 
from their sins, and not by natural blood shed on 
the cross." 

The extracts we have given express the spiritual 
doctrine of individual Friends. To each mind that 
embraces and understands them, they are in them- 
selves a unit. There is no contradiction in them, no 
jar, no discord. Carried out to their legitimate 
extent, they comprise the perfection of the Christian 
doctrine. They are in their nature calculated to 
destroy all deism and scepticism, as those words are 
understood. Restore Christianity to its natural 
beauty, and it may defy scepticism. The Quaker 
doctrines, as we have said before, embrace two as- 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 45 

pects; men believe in one or the other, according to 
their state of mind. 

We are not aware that there is any writer among 
the early Quakers, who touched on the doctrines of 
the Society, that is consistent. We do not mean 
consistent with our opinion, but consistent w^ith him- 
self. They all contradict themselves again and again, 
not in words alone, but by laying down propositions, 
which, when carried out, destroy at once all the 
superstructure. 

We have quoted William Penn speaking of Christ 
as a principle. On another occasion he writes thus : 
<' The Quakers believe that Christ is God, and that 
Christ is man ; that he came in the flesh, died, rose 
again, ascended and sits on God's right hand, the 
only sacrifice and mediator for man's happiness."* 

George Fox, after writing beautifully on spi- 
ritual religion, thus speaks in his Great Mystery : 
<« Christ gave himself, his body, for the life of the 
whole world, and paid the debt, and made satisfac- 
tion ; and doth enlighten every man that comes into 
the world, that all through him might believe, and he 
that doth not believe in the offering is condemned 
already." 

Again, from an epistle drawn up by George Fox 
and Ellis Hookes, clerk of the Yearly Meeting of 
London : " Christ Jesus, the Emanuel, God with us ; 
whom all the angels must worship. Christ offered 
himself through the Eternal Spirit, without spot to 
God ; and by his blood purges our consciences from 
dead works to serve the living God, and so we 

^Penn's Works, vol. 2, p. 739, 1692. 



46 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

know that Christ by one offering, hath forever per- 
fected them that are sanctified." 

These Trinitarian views abound in the Quaker wri- 
tings, and read by themselves they would lead the 
mind to the belief that those Friends were Trinita- 
rians. Yet it is apparent that they were all the ef- 
fect of deference to the authority of the ancient fa- 
thers, whom, through preconceived opinions, they 
were bound to reverence, and whose sentiments they 
deemed it presumptuous to call in question. Always 
beneath this materialism of the Trinity we find 
underlaying the doctrine of spiritualism. Their 
spontaneous feelings are deeply marked with it, and 
often expressed with much power. William Penn was 
imprisoned in the Tower on this ground. When re- 
quested to retract with a view to his release, and he was 
told that the Bishop of London was resolved he should 
either publicly recant or die a prisoner, he made this 
reply: "All is well ; I wish they had told me so 
before, since the expecting of a release put a stop to 
some business. Thou mayest tell my father, who I 
know will ask thee, these words: That my prison 
shall be my grave before I will budge a jot ; for I 
owe my conscience to no mortal man ; I have no 
need to fear, God will make amends for all They 
are mistaken in me ; I value not their threats nor 
resolutions ; for they shall know I can weary out 
their malice and peevishness ; and in me they shall 
behold a resolution above fear.'' 

Yet after these manly sentiments, he made a weak 
defence, or did, in fact, retract, in his work entitled 
'^Innocency with her open face." 

The Quakers in England appear to be carrying out 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 47 

the Pagan or material doctrine of Friends to its legi- 
timate issue. One of the epistles from London for 
the present year, speaks of the " written revelation 
of God," and similar expressions have become com- 
mon among the English Quakers. Thus iri ^'Porta- 
ble Evidence of Christianity," there are these words: 
<^ the moral law as revealed in Scripture;" "the 
Bible, which alone fully reveals the nature and 
character of sin ;" "it is in the Scriptures only that 
the attributes of our Heavenly Father are fully made 
known to us," with many other similar sentiments, 
evidently showing that the English Quakers are 
yielding their minds to that benumbing influence 
that instituted tithes and church rates, and that still 
supports them. If we may receive revelation through 
the medium of written words, we may receive it also 
by spoken words. This makes revelation an affair of 
barter, to be bought and sold in the shambles. We 
hold it to be a contradiction utterly impossible in the 
nature of man. 

The English Quakers openly maintain the or- 
thodox views respecting the doctrine of Christ, in 
these words: "Behold the glorious partner of the 
Father's throne, fully opening his bosom to the vials 
of his wrath, groaning and bleeding on the cross, in 
the nature of man, and bearing in his own body on 
the tree, the penalty of the sins of mankind." 
Again, "Let us call to mind that in that hour of un- 
utterable desertion, the righteous vengeance of God 
against a guilty world was poured forth upon the 
innocent substitute."* 

* Treatise on Love to God, pages 40 and 45. 



48 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

Others of them have gone so far as to object to the 
old Quaker doctrine respecting the light of truth 
manifested in all men. Hence they say, that «' they 
cannot regard the term light as applying to a spiritual 
principle, and that the Scriptures are the appointed 
source of that truth that was taught by Christ and 
his apostles.''* 

We are told that this is philosophy. We desire 
that they would work out these problems, and show 
its consistency and harmony with those unchangea^ 
ble principles in which alone truth is to be found. 
We would cheerfully do so, but we think their doc- 
trine has no foundation to rest upon, beyond the 
ipse dixit of men, transmitted from generation to 
generation, but having no ulterior support. We would 
also analyze the doctrine set forth in Evan's Exposi- 
tion, as we have endeavored to do the doctrine of 
spiritualism, but though conveyed in language with 
which we are more familiar than that of the English 
Quakers, it is yet essentially and in substance the 
same. Each assumes for facts, and teaches for truth, 
and claims implicit belief for things entirely beyond 
our comprehension in this state of existence ; and 
waich, in our view, it is great presumption to attempt 
to decide upon. 

We make the following extract from the life of 
Elizabeth Fry, to show that there was at least one 
Guerneyite Quaker, who, though she estimated the 
Scriptures in a way that never was assented to by 
ancient Friends, was in reality a spiritualist ; her 

*See " An Enquiry into some "parts of Christian Doctrine, 
having relation to the Society of Friends," pages 233, 276. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 49 

daughter says of her : " Her highest power was un- 
questionably derived from the knowledge she had ob- 
tained of the heart of man, greatly if not chiefly from 
the knowledge the study of her own, its feelings, and 
tendencies." This is spiritualism, in its full force 
and efficacy, and it was through this means that she 
was able to accomplish the great work to which she 
was called, and thus we have reason to believe that 
many with these outward views of Christianity are 
yet spiritualists. This is that under current of vital 
truth of which we have spoken, which is the source 
of true philosophy, and of every principle connected 
with the permanent happiness of man. 

If we adopt any standard of faith, which the 
American Quakers have deemed correct, it would 
lead to the conclusion that Friends in England were 
of all others, who ever claimed the name of Quakers, 
the least sound — nay, we should say that as they deny 
the fundamental doctrines of Quakerism, they are 
not Quakers. 

We do not individually adopt any such standard. 
The English Quakers have of course a perfect right 
to hold such faith or doctrine as they think proper, 
with which no discipline has a right to interfere, and 
this will be acknowledged, whenever the American 
Orthodox Friends, who object so much to it, shall 
fully admit that Christianity consists in practical 
righteousness and not in speculative opinions. Our 
own impression is that to compare their doctrine with 
Paganism would be to disgrace Paganism. That it 
is even more degrading than Atheism itself, but it 
does nof thence follow but that those who entertain 
such views may be amiable and estimable men. 

5 



50 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

The Scriptures. — We have already adverted to 
Friend's doctrine respecting the Scriptures. It is this : 
that the precepts contained in them are " to be be- 
lieved only as they correspond with the eternal pre- 
cepts of the spirit in men's minds/'* 

No persons of their day made stronger objections 
to the idolatry of the Scriptures, than the early 
Quakers. Samuel Fisher, the cotemporary and friend 
of Fox, and the most learned biblical critic that has 
appeared in the Society, wrote several hundred folio 
pages, to prove the " woful corruptions, the barba- 
risms, the errors arising from transpositions, transla- 
tions, and transcriptions, the flat falsities, the innum- 
erable faults which they contain.'' Not only the 
Hebrew, but the Septuagint, the Arabic, the Samari- 
tan, the Chaldee, the Latin and English translations, 
are all, according to his researches, equally uncertain 
and corrupt ; we use his own words, often repeated in 
a singularly abstruse, elaborate and labored style of 
writing. We have read in his works this idea, though 
we cannot now refer to it, that the time will come when 
the authority of the Scriptures will come to an end. 

With Friends' views, that their precepts are to be 
judged of by individual feeling, these corruptions 
form no obstacle to the reception of the truths they 
contain. 

There is no mystery in this doctrine — " Thou shalt 
not steal," is a plain precept in the Bible, and we be- 
lieve it, not because it is written there, but because 
we feel the evidence of its correctness in our own 
minds. A text equally plain is, that « a garment 

* Seo Wm. Perm's folio works, 1st vol. page 599. 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 51 

mingled of linen and woolen shall not come upon thee." 
(Leviticus xix. 19.) This we reject, because we have no 
evidence in our own mind of its truth. This we think 
is a simple exposition of the true Quaker doctrine. 
If they had calmly adhered to it, and allowed each 
member to explain texts according to their own views, 
without deeming the Society committed thereby, 
there could have been no schism on the ground of 
Scripture interpretation. 

One of the most powerful demonstrations George 
Fox ever made was at Nottingham, where, when the 
priest told his hearers that it was by the Scriptures 
they were to try all doctrines, religions, and opinions, 
Fox interrupting him cried out, '' no, it is not the 
Scriptures, but it is the Holy Spirit by which the holy 
men of God gave forth the Scriptures whereby 
opinions, religions, and judgments, are to be tried." 
Yet Friends afterwards abundantly declared that all 
their doctrine was to be tried by Scripture. They 
held many public disputations, some of which lasted 
for successive days, in which they professed to try 
their doctrines by that test. Thus they changed 
their ground and made them instead of a secondary, 
a primary rule. As courts of final appeal are always 
supreme courts. 

These various views abound in the early Quaker 
writings. Many have thought they were able to ex- 
plain them. We are not. We do not believe they 
can be made to harmonize, or that they ever were 
analyzed and connected together in the minds of their 
writers ; neither do we believe that it is at all essential 
to Christianity that they should be. It is a great 
error to seek for uniformity, or to make a Society ac* 



52 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

countable for the opinions of its individual members. 
That there is a deep feeling of sympathy between 
virtuous mindSj no one will presume to doubt. Hence 
it is that there is great consolation in finding a corres- 
pondence between the views of Scripture writers and 
those truths which our own minds recognize. But be- 
cause we value them, we need not idolize them. What is 
true of them, is true of every other idea. Isaac Pen- 
nington says, '' my desire to the Lord for you is, that 
he would strip you of all knowledge of the Scriptures 
according to the flesh, that ye might be made by him 
capable of knowing and receiving things according to 
the spirit.''* 

Yet notwithstanding these views, it is evident that 
there was a continual effort to make their doctrines 
correspond with the Scriptures ; in order to accom- 
plish this they put their own construction on particu- 
lar texts, often forced them to suit their own purposes, 
and undertook what might be considered in some 
respects a wild crusade in accepting for truth all that 
they found therein. Many instances of this occurred ; 
we shall refer only to the following. 

They quoted repeatedly that passage in the New 
Testament, "There are three that bear record in 
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, 
and these three are one ;" and professed their sincere 
belief in it. 

The great error of determining our faith by ancient 
authority is clearly manifested in this instance. This 
text, so sincerely believed in by Friends, has of latter 
time been subjected to critical examination. Of one 

^Pennington's Works. Question to the Professors of Chris- 
tianity. 2d part, page 9. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRlENBS. 53 

hundred and thirteen Greek manuscripts now extant, 
containing the epistle in which this text occurs, it is 
only to be found in one copy. It is wanting in all 
the ancient versions of the Vulgate ; it is not in any 
Latin copies previous to the tenth century"; it is 
wanting in Erasmus's edition, also in that of Luther ; 
and appears to be universally considered by all bibli- 
cal critics of the present day, even by Trinitarians, 
as an interpolation made for corrupt sectarian pur- 
poses.^^ 

Thus the Society of Friends profess to be sincere 
believers in this spurious text, and make their mem- 
bers offenders who cannot assent to it. 

It would be unwise to deny that "there are three 
that bear record in heaven,'' but equally so in my 
opinion to aflSrm it. It is a point on which we have 
no proof, and in the nature of things can have none. 

Yet withal we think there were none more firm and 
earnest believers in the truths contained in the Scrip- 
tures than the early Quakers. None but Christians 
can believe Christian truths, and there are no doubt 
many sentiments in the Scriptures that will meet the 
conscientious feeling of every serious mind. 

To give them a character they were not designed 
to have, is in fact to degrade them. Inasmuch as 
Friends attempted this, it led to contradiction. 

Evan's exposition, embracing the Orthodox views 
of the Society, covers upwards of three hundred pages. 
They may be the doctrines of Friends ; this we do not 
deny, but we think them not Christian but Pagan 
doctrines — ^not spiritualism, but materialism. He 
denies the contrariety of the doctrines of ancient 

^ See Clark^s Commentaries. 
5* 



54 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

Friends, but this denial is vain, so long as a common 
sense discrimination of language is not confined to a 
few sectarians. 

Neither this exposition nor any others of the same 
character, let them come from what division of the 
Society they may, is entitled to any respect, because 
they are sectarian, suppressing all parts of the doctrine 
of Friends but such as suit their own purposes ; and 
hence they are untrue. 

Such expositions have a tendency to build up an- 
cient prejudices, to create animosity and discord, and 
to justify Friends in severe and exacting measures 
towards those who do not believe as thev do. We 
shall content ourselves with adverting to one fact 
which we think will be conclusive on the subject of 
contrariety. 

There are within one day's travel, four distinct 
Yearly Meetings of Friends ; Gurneyite, Wilburite, 
Orthodox and Hicksite ; all claiming to derive their 
doctrines from the same source — governed essentially 
by the same discipline — each believing that it is the 
true exponent of ancient Quakerism ; yet with such 
irreconcilable diiferences between them, that it ap- 
pears as though they could more willingly communi- 
cate with any other body of professing Christians than 
with each other. 

The cause of this contrariety is easily explained. 
Quakers as a body have never had any doctrines upon 
abstruse points upon which all concurred. The 
attempt to fasten a creed upon its members was not 
a primary idea ; it grew out of what was erroneously 
supposed a necessity to make all members conform to 
a particular faith. It made their ideas of liberty of 
conscience appear like a solemn mockery. They 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 55 

were so severely persecuted in England — the term 
Deist was so freely applied to them — that there was 
an evident disposition to meet the popular views in 
theology, as far as was in their power. To this we 
think is to be traced the trinitarian doctrines so 
abundant in their writings. If these are closely ex- 
amined, it will be found that they were mostly, perhaps 
in every instance, called forth by charges brought 
against them for unsoundness of faith. Wm. Penn's 
two works, " The Sandy Foundation Shaken," and 
"Innocency with her Open Face,'' give a direct ex- 
emplification of our views. We believe them to be 
irreconcilable with each other. The one was written 
free from restraint, the other under restraint. 

There is a very curious letter from Penn to Fox, 
illustrative of these views, to be found in Clarkson's 
life of Penn. The old charge of Deism had been 
brought against them ; a public disputation was held, 
where it is represented that there were six thousand 
persons present. The Quakers were utterly at a loss 
to know how to meet the question, ^« whether the man- 
hood was a part of Christ ?" Penn says in his letter, 
I cried twice to them, " Christ is not to be divided 
into parts." Their opponents were desirous for an 
answer, and he says, «« Friends at length consented 
that it should be answered that the manhood was a 
part of Christ." The letter is too long for insertion, 
but should be studied by those who are desirous to 
trace to its origin that materialism which is so singu- 
larly mixed up with the doctrines of the Society. 

When Pennsylvania was settled, the Quakers of 
the colony were removed from under the direct in- 
fluence of the power of the church ; and in the schism 



66 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

led on by George Keith a few years afterwards, Uni- 
tarian doctrines were boldly avowed by the most 
eminent members of the Society in this country ; and 
the prominent charge made against them by him was, 
that they were deists. The English Quakers took 
up the subject, and in defending their position rela- 
tive to this schism, reiterated their Trinitarian doc- 
trine in the strongest terms that could well be used. 
This was tacitly admitted, probably from the respect 
felt for the authority of Friends in the mother 
country, but it does not appear to have been endorsed 
by the hearty concurrence of American Friends, and 
they never adopted that portion of the English disci- 
pline made on this subject. 

Our views might be illustrated by reference to par- 
ticular instances. Hannah Barnard, an American 
Quaker, was harshly treated and sent home from 
England, for preaching doctrine believed in by many 
in America. Job Scott, a man second perhaps to 
none in the Society for devotion to duty and practical 
religion, has been assailed by English Quaker writers 
as unsound in the Quaker faith. The schism with Elias 
Hicks, it is well known, was precipitated by the inter- 
ference of English Friends. Many who are well ac- 
quainted with the facts attending that separation, 
believe that without that interference it would never 
have taken place. The effect has been, that those 
very Orthodox Friends who were so zealous in con- 
demnation of Elias Hicks, find themselvas again di- 
vided, because many of them cannot concur in the 
views of the English Quakers. A separation has taken 
place in the New England Yearly Meeting, and the 
Orthodox in Philadelphia are only saved from a like 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 57 

division by the shrewder policy of the oligarchy 
which governs. 

It is evident from these facts, that Friends lost 
sight of the great principle of Liberty of Conscience ; 
and yet it is a necessary adjunct to individual ac- 
countability ; without this, it is barren, void, and of 
none effect. 

No persons had a clearer comprehension of the 
importance of liberty of conscience than the early 
Quakers ; they claimed it as one of the inalienable 
rights of man, which he should under no circumstances 
relinquish. 

William Penn, after examining the subject under 
many heads, showing how kingdoms and sects have 
flourished or decayed as they have adhered to or de- 
parted from this principle, says, that " it is the great 
privilege of nature, the noble principle of reason, the 
justice, prudence and felicity of government ; that it 
corresponds with the reverence due to God, and re- 
spect to the nature, practice, promotion and rewards 
of the Christian religion.''* 

George Fox is equally explicit. He claimed and 
took the liberty of going where he thought proper, 
and saying what he thought right ; in at least one 
case interrupting a minister in his discourse and con- 
tradicting his doctrine. In his work on «' Truth's 
Triumph," he says, " as touching religion, let there 
be universal liberty for what people soever." "^ * 
Let him be Jew, or Papist, or Turk or Heathen, or 
Protestant, or what sect soever, or such as worship 
sun, or moon, or stocks, or stones, let them have free 

* First vol. folio, page 462. 



58 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

liberty where every one may bring forth his strength, 
and have free liberty to speak forth his mind and 
judgment ; and let the magistrates keep the civil peace, 
that people may not strike one another nor wrong one 
another's persons, but that they shall be patient one 
to another." 

If these sentiments are true, and they seem to 
have been accepted as fundamental principles at the 
rise of the Society, we may at once decide that every 
thing inconsistent with them must be false. We 
cannot evade this conclusion. Hence it is that we 
shall have occasion to say, that there are radical de- 
fects in the organization of the Society of Friends. 
They appear to have felt that whilst they had a right 
to liberty of conscience in their intercourse with 
other societies, yet that it was their duty to deny it 
to their own members ; and this contradiction has led 
the Society into constant confusion and diflSculty. 
William Penn, after writing many pages most em- 
phatically in favor of liberty of conscience, at a sub- 
sequent period took the other side of the question, 
saying that liberty of conscience must be according 
to God's truth ; that ^« it is the root of ranterism 
to assert that nothing is a duty incumbent upon thee 
but what thou art persuaded is thy duty,'' and after 
much argument interpreting the ^'mind of God's 
truth to be the opinion of the church of Christ, 
and the Society of Quakers to be that church of 
Christ."* 

See his <* Examination and State of Liberty Spiritual. 
2d yol. p. 69. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 59 

There is an easy solution of these contradictions. 
Friends had established a system altogether incon- 
sistent with the right of private judgment, and tin- 
stead of adhering to their first principle upon the 
subject, which they considered unchangeable, and 
fearlessly maintaining their own idea that everything 
that interfered with that was wrong, they yielded 
it up whenever it came in contact with the opinions 
of those who they thought had a right to rule in 
their own Society ; thus their liberty of conscience 
was brought down to a level with that of Papists 
and with that of Protestant sects, who all allow liberty 
of conscience so far as it does not interfere with their 
dogmas. 

We define liberty of conscience to mean, First, 
the acknowledgement of the inherent right of indi- 
viduals to entertain such views on religion as seem 
to them true, and that without let or hinderance, or 
disability of any kind. Men cannot help taking this 
liberty, and the attempt to control it only makes hy- 
pocrites. Second, the right of self-control in all 
physical afiairs — with this exception, which forms a 
distinct line of demarkation ; that no physical in- 
jury be done to their fellow men. Physically to injure 
others under the plea of liberty of conscience, would 
be, in fact, licentiousness, and would properly come 
under the cognizance of the civil law. The estab- 
lishment of a Society may be an ajffair of great in- 
terest, but we have first to consider whether it can 
be accomplished without interfering with those pri- 
mary elements of a religious nature, which are deemed 
fundamental, as forming the root of all religious in- 
telligence. 



60 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

Our opinion is, that a society formed on the basis 
of that of Friends, cuts off from itself, by its funda- 
mental principles, the right to interfere with the faith 
of its individual members, be that what it may. 
This, we think, was substantially believed by the first 
Quakers. They thought they had the right, and they 
exercised the right of judging, and expressing their 
opinions as they thought proper. And it was not 
until a church hierarchy was established and another 
primary principle, that of the reputation of the So- 
ciety, came into view, that they undertook to con- 
trol it. 

Friends' doctrine and practice on the subject of war 
is equally contradictory with that we have referred to. 
At a very early day there was a declaration signed 
by George Fox and others, stating that they not only 
disapproved of war^ but of force of all kind, as being 
contrary to the spirit of the gospel ; similar declara- 
tions have often since been made ; yet no sooner 
was the Society organized, than their professions 
proved practically void. I condemn them not ; either 
Society was to be abandoned, or order must be main- 
tained, and this was only to be effected, in many in- 
stances, by removing forcibly, by the exercise of mus- 
cular power, those who would not conform to the 
rules laid down. 

The principle upon which Friends hold their meet- 
ings — if religious meetings of any kind are deemed 
necessary — is entitled to respect. It is not required 
that there should be preaching, unless some one feels 
impelled to speak. The practice that prevails in 
other societies of consecrating churches, ordaining 
ministers, and then paying them for their sermons 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. Gl 

and prayers, involves to my mind so much absurdity, 
that I have been at a loss to understand how sensible 
minds could submit to it. No matter how feeble the 
Quaker preaching may be, it is at least not the 
hackneyed words and sentences which have been ut- 
tered again and again, as often as there could be 
found persons to hear them, till they have clogged 
the very soul, and have become as dead and lifeless 
as the pulpit from which they are uttered. There is 
a principle in Friends' doctrine respecting ministry 
that compensates for any supposed feebleness. Yet 
it is not feeble ; there is no feebleness in a spon- 
taneous movement towards good, be that what it 
may. 

The testimony of Friends against a hireling minis- 
try, has been fearlessly maintained up to the present 
time. The annual distraints for different kinds of 
church rates from Friends in Great Britain, amount 
to upwards of $50,000. Of latter time, there has 
been an enactment for the commutation of all tithes 
in England and Wales, into a rent charge on the land, 
but this does not affect the principle. It is natural 
to suppose there may have been instances of a com- 
promise of this testimony between individuals and 
the executors of the law. Yet it is understood 
that the Society as a body has always been consistent 
therein. 

We think it a noble testimony ; but adhering to it 
does not in any degree impeach the integrity of in- 
dividuals who feel it right to take pay for preaching. 
Great integrity is often combined with erroneous 
opinions, and yet these opinions are always injurious 

6 



62 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

to the outward moral and physical condition of 
society. 

It is our settled persuasion that priestcraft is the 
greatest moral evil in the country, not even excepting 
the baneful influence of slavery. It is by no means 
confined to those who take pay for preaching ; it per- 
vades general society, and is prominent in most of our 
institutions : we mean, that habit of thought which 
ascribes to man the attributes of the Most High. 
The Society of Friends, though they do not pay their 
ministers, are by no means clear of priestcraft. 
When they established the idea that there were cer- 
tain classes of duties which ministers might not be 
called upon to perform, such as being arbitrators, 
dealing with ofl'enders, &c., they established a distinct 
order of priesthood. They further accomplish this, 
when in their own way they ordain them, and speak 
of them as having received «^ a gift in the ministry." 
It seems to us that speaking in meeting ought to be 
considered an act of simple obedience to duty mani- 
fested according to the best evidence received, and 
that the words spoken should be accepted for what 
they appear to be worth. 

Friends' doctrine on the subject of dress and ad- 
dress forms a singular mixture of strength and weak- 
ness. A rational mind would, we think, decide that 
that clothing and that language is best, that most 
fully answers the true object designed ; and that to 
pervert them to purposes of pride and vanity, or to 
sanctify them in idea as necessarily connected with 
religion, are equally at variance with religion and 
common sense. 

So early as the year 1709, the discipline in regard 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 63 

to plainness says : <' That when the apparent signs 
of the plague of leprosy appeared on the walls of 
the houses of Israel, it was the care of the priests 
under the law to have the lepers cleansed and the 
houses also ; and surely Christ's priesthood should not 
fall short of their care, to endeavor to stop and re- 
move the manifest tokens of the leprosy of the great 
sin of pride and all superfluity of naughtiness." 
These ideas, which are repeated in other forms of 
words, have been productive of much trouble to the 
Society, and much vexation to members of it, who 
thought they had a right to judge for themselves as 
to what apparel they would wear. 

At one period Friends thought themselves justified 
in visiting their members and taking instruments 
with them for the purpose of removing ornamental 
work from articles of furniture ; some of the muti- 
lated furniture yet remains. In another case, at an 
early day, a Friend in printing a work declined to 
use capital letters, even to proper names. 

We admit that these are extreme cases ; but the idea 
that one color is less holy than another, has led to 
many absurdities. 

The Quaker discipline respecting language is not 
altogether correct in matter of fact. It gives a rea- 
son for the use of the numerical designation of the 
months, that it is the language of Scripture. It may 
be more simple, we think it so ; but the Jewish names 
for the months were not confined to numerals, and 
it is remarkable that the months of their sacred year 
had names which seem to correspond with our present 
common designations. 

The question may naturally occur, why should 



64 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

there be an objection to using tbe term March, be- 
cause so called from the feigned '^ god of War ;" or 
April, as coming from the Greek appellation of Venus; 
or May, from the mother of Mercury ; or June from 
Juno, one of the goddesses of the heathen; and yet 
find no scruple in using the names of those heathen 
deities themselves, when applied to the planets. When 
men forsake enlightened reason and common sense, to 
run after myths and shadows, the end is confusion. 
We have no doubt there is substantial philosophy in 
the doctrines of Friends on these subjects, but its 
power is neutralized when it is connected with tradi- 
tions which have in themselves no force. 

Other doctrines of the Society would deserve no- 
tice, if we were disposed to extend this work. Their 
views respecting oaths are entitled to respect, for ob- 
vious reasons, which are more and and more claiming 
the attention of society at large. There are those 
who believe the substitution of the affirmation was 
little short of an evasion — there have been many 
Quakers who rejected this also, deeming it an implied 
reflection on their veracity. 

It seems to us remarkable, that though Friends 
seemed at times to have a clear perception of the 
universality of the power of God, and that Jie '' is in- 
deed no respecter of persons," they so easily adopted 
the opinion that they were ^^ a peculiar people, called 
and chosen out of the world,"* and that the special 
interference of the Deity was exerted on their behalf. 
One of the early queries ran thus : 

" What signal judgments have come upon persecu- 
tors?" This query was grounded upon this advice. 

* See the English Discipline. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 65 

" Remember to keep a true record of manifest judg- 
ments upon persecutors, that the just judgments of 
God in pleading the cause of the innocent suiFerers, 
by signally punishing their persecutors, may be taken 
notice of as a warning to posterity." This query and 
advice have long since passed away. 

The contradictions in the doctrines of the Society 
have arisen from the attempt to have two standards of 
religious faith, and to give the same authority to 
statements made by others, the evidence of which is 
received through the senses, and which in its nature 
must be material, as to those spiritual truths experi- 
enced in their own minds, and which they believed were 
the result of an influx from the spirit of the Most 
High, It was thus they expressed their confident be- 
lief, before referred to, in the ^« three that bear re- 
cord in heaven." Their faith in the efficacy of the 
blood of Christ as a propitiatory sacrifice, in his re- 
surrection, &c., is of the same character. We are 
not considering whether these views are true or false, 
and certainly have no point to establish, having our 
own views wholly independent of others ; but we un- 
dertake to say that if there is but one true faith, the 
power of truth manifested in the secret of the soul, 
it is prostituted when it is burthened with traditionary 
dogmas, with which it has no connection. 

If there is but one standard of religious faith, the 
attempt to make two must inevitably lead to confusion. 

In contemplating the character of the early Qua- 
kers, the conviction is forced upon us that there was 
among them a remarkable combination of spirituality 
and superstition. Were we to attempt to define their 

6* 



66 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

faith, we should say that is it in reality a beautiful 
idea of individual virtue ; of practical righteousness, 
•wholly independent of doctrines of any kind. But as 
it stands in books, and is dejSned by expositors, it is 
Paganism and Christianity so combined, that no ra- 
tional man can be expected to understand it. 

The members of the Society have been so long ac- 
customed to a reverential regard of the early Quakers, 
that we are quite sensible that any views that call in 
question their opinions will be at once rejected. 

The doctrines of the early Quakers may be a matter 
of interest, but man degrades himself when he adopts 
them as his guide. The first qualification in the attain- 
ment of truth, is a mind prepared to receive it. Pre- 
conceived ideas that the early Quakers were right, 
are in themselves a barrier to the attainment of truth. 

We have dwelt longer upon the doctrines of Friends, 
because of late years they have been much referred 
to, and have been made the subjects of bitter discussion. 
Properly considered, they should be an olive branch 
of peace, since, with the single exception of the ultra 
views of the Gurneyite Quakers, all the doctrines 
maintained by modern Friends may be found in the 
ancient writings of the Society ; whether these be 
Unitarian or Trinitarian. We know not which most 
prevails. Minds, like trees, produce fruit according 
to their kind. A peaceable mind would draw har- 
mony from these doctrines : one disposed to war, con- 
tention. 

The Orthodox of the various divisions will of course 
say, that they must have some precise faith. It is con- 
sistent with the state they are in, that they should place 
confidence in opinions ; they believe them to be true 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 67 

and necessary, because the veil has not fallen from 
their eyes. We believe the idea false in principle, 
that it is the effect of a religion that places its depen- 
dence on material things — and being thus, it has 
brought forth its natural fruits, discord and confusion. 



DISCIPLINE. 

We come next to consider the Discipline of the 
Society of Friends, and though we shall have oc- 
casion to show its entire unsuitableness to the wants 
and feelings of the present age, we know too little of 
the sentiments which prevailed two centuries ago, 
can enter too slightly into the excited state of the 
public mind when the Discipline was formed to hazard 
the opinion that it was wrong at the period in which 
it was instituted. 

There is a remarkable sentiment in Hume's His- 
tory of England in regard to the Star chamber, one 
of the most arbitary courts that ever existed. It is 
to this effect : ^' The same maxims of government 
that suit a rude people may not be proper in a more 
advanced stage of Society. The abolition of the 
Star Chamber might have been as wise in the age of 
Charles I, as its establishment or the enlargement of 
its power in that of Henry VII.''* 

This sentiment may apply equally to the Discipline 
of the Society of Friends. That deference to public 
opinion, with which we are familiar in the present 
day, was little known and understood in the 17th 

* Hume, vol. 3, note N. 



68 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

century. And it is to this cause we may ascribe 
many of the arbitrary rules and dogmas that now 
exist in the Society. 

No principle appears more indisputable than the 
right of a properly organized body to enact laws for 
its own government, but the whole force of this ad- 
mission rests upon the fact that the organization is 
proper. 

We doubt whether this ever was the case among 
Friends ; we believe it to be entirely inconsistent 
with the usual sentiments and feelings of the present 
day. 

Professedly the organization is a democracy, giv- 
ing equal rights to all ; in reality it is an oligarchy, 
in which all the power and influence of the Society 
are in the hands of a few. It seems to be supposed 
that a particular class of the members of each meet- 
ing have the right and ought to rule, without any 
popular expression of opinion as to this right. It is 
what is called the sense of the meeting that governs, 
and that is generally decided by the voice of those 
who are already in power, and who deem it essential 
that their own particular views should be maintained, 
and who expect implicit acquiescence in the decisions. 
Thus, by long usage, a self constituted oligarchy is 
established, who frown upon every suggestion that 
does not accord with ancient prescription ; in general 
the larger portion of the Society have no more influ- 
ence than if they did not belong to it, and by this 
means are perpetuated the contradictions, the super- 
stitions, and absurdities of former ages. 

It was this oligarchy who attempted to re-enact the 
Apostolic code. There is a progress in the aflfairs of 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 69 

men and the laws of one age are seldom adapted to a 
succeeding one. It was as reasonable for the people 
of Massachusetts to re-enact the Mosaic code, as for 
Friends to re-enact the Apostolic code. When peo- 
ple become copyists, they cease to be men in the en- 
larged sense of the word. 

The early Quakers left behind them this noble 
sentiment : '' Say not in your hearts, as these atheists 
recorded in Scripture, all things continue as they were 
at the beginning, and where is the promise of his 

• 5 5-^ 

commg : "^ 

With the adoption of the Apostolic code, was cou- 
pled the assumption that the Quaker meetings were 
the church of Christ, and Friends seemed to have no 
hesitation in claiming for themselves infallible judg- 
ment, and recognizing the idea that " whatsoever they 
bound on earth should be bound in heaven.'' 

One of their queries is to this effect, whether judg- 
ment is placed against offenders in the authority of 
Truth, 

The arguments by which they sustained these 
claims, while they denied them entirely to the Romish 
church, form a curious specimen of special pleading. 
They would be all true if their premises were true ; 
but these being untrue, the conclusions formed upon 
them are false. 

Fox beautifully describes <^ the church of Christ as 
the pillar and ground of truth, made up of living 
stones, living members, a spiritual household, which 
Christ was the head of." Yet Barclay says : '' If none 
may be excluded from communion with the body, for 

*Besse, vol. 2, pp. 5, 23. 



70 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

his judgment or opinion in matters of Faith, then 
what blasphemies so horrid, what heresies so damna- 
ble, what doctrine of devils but might harbor itself in 
the church of Christ?" 

These two eminent men were, in this instance, in 
direct opposition to each other ; the one making the 
church of Christ to consist of " living members,'' the 
other of the mixed multitude of a Quaker meeting. 

The doctrine of Friends is that of individualism, 
while organization involves the necessity of the relin- 
quishment of individual rights for the good of the 
whole. Individual sovereignty in its fulness, and the 
sovereignty of a Society, cannot exist together; hence, 
when Friends maintained the social principle, they 
deny the one ; when the supremacy of the inward 
Light, they reject the other. It is a question how 
far they may be made to correspond. 

A careful examination of the system of the Society 
will, we think, demonstrate that there has been an 
attempt to reconcile irreconcilable things ; to join to- 
gether what God has separated ; to incorporate upon 
an individual principle, a social principle, with checks 
and balances, wholly inconsistent with spiritualism. 
This can never be done with impunity. The laws of 
God are eternal and unchangeable ; as well might a 
mechanic introduce counteracting forces into his ma- 
chine, and expect it towork harmoniously. The laws of 
morals are as fixed as those of mechanism; when these 
are violated, the result is inevitable. 

The formation of the discipline furnishes a curious 
illustration of the gradual encroachment of power. 
The first objects were praiseworthy ; the care of those 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 71 

who "were suffering in the prisons of England, of 
widows and orphans, and of others who needed assist- 
ance. It next extended to marriages, to the settle- 
ment of differences, finally, to matters of faith, and 
to the regulation of most of the affairs of life. 

Whatever apology the excited state of the period 
at which the Society was organized may be supposed 
to furnish for these assumptions, we know of none for 
their continuance in the present day. They are the 
effect of a deeply rooted sectarianism : unworthy of 
any enlightened community; and they have produced 
as their natural fruits the most unhappy effects. 
Within thirty years of the organization of the system; 
three important schisms occurred which shook the 
Society to its centre, and from which it has never re- 
covered, and it may be safely assumed it never will 
recover until the causes that produced them are re- 
moved. 

The assumption of power by ecclesiastical bodies 
has been the great evil of the Christian world. It is 
this that has given rise to all the schisms that have 
ever occurred among Friends. It is needful for the 
establishment of dogmas, and an enforced adherence 
to preconceived opinions, but contrary to the uniform 
pleadings of Friends upon other occasions, contrary to 
the principles that formed the real bond of union 
among them. 

By this assumption of power, in despite of very 
serious opposition from many of the most enlightened 
minds among them, who clearly discerned the nature 
of the movement, there was rapidly constructed, in- 
stead of a liberal and enlightened Discipline, some- 
what in accordance with their professed principles, 



72 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

one perhaps more complicated and exacting than ever 
was, in any other instance, submitted to by a free 
people. 

There are different classes of meetings ; some of 
higher, others of lower degree, with regulations relative 
to faith and doctrine, and also to the minute affairs of 
private life, which to disinterested minds might ap- 
pear wholly unessential. There are different orders 
of members, with queries indicating that a greater 
degree of holiness is expected from some than from 
others. 

George Fox was the prime mover in this work ; it 
evidently arose from a want of faith in that divine 
power which, in other instances, he so nobly illus- 
trated. He labored hard for what was, in fact, a sub- 
version of his own principles. The natural tendency 
of power is to corrupt the mind, and dispose it to 
trample upon individual rights. Fox seemed not to 
suppose that such could ever be the case in his own 
Society. 

We are not certain that spontaneous meetings, 
with liberty of conscience, only restricted so far as to 
preserve order, are not the only religious organiza- 
tions that are consistent with the Christian religion. 
Church hierarchies are essential to the monarchies 
of Europe — essential to the power of the Pope — to 
the Episcopal church, and others of a like character ; 
They are oligarchies in which a few Bishops, Cardi- 
nals, &c., control the destiny perhaps of millions. 
Princes mould them to their purposes ; hence they 
are patronized by them. History furnishes a melan- 
choly record of their atrocities. The nations of Eu- 
rope are struggling to free themselves from their 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 73 

bondage ; power may crush these efforts for a time, 
but eventually they must prevail. The people will 
not forever submit to systems which in their attempt 
to enforce implicit submission, blight every budding 
of rational freedom. Wherever found, they have 
but one source, and are believed to be absolutely in- 
consistent with the principles upon which the Society 
of Friends is professedly founded. 

By this movement the Society gained consistency, 
but it lost power and energy. From that period its 
decline may be dated, and it has been torn by 
schism and dissension to the present day. These 
views will not be assented to by those who ask us to 
rally round the Discipline as the ark of our safety. 
They are not willing to believe that this system, pro- 
mulgated by the founders of the Society, and which 
is so dearly cherished, can be defective. 

Admitting that this complicated Discipline was 
ever right, it would not follow that the experience of 
the early Quakers is adapted to the wants of the pre- 
sent day. 

At the root of the Discipline was the denial of 
liberty of conscience in regard to things in them- 
selves innocent; and it very soon showed itself in the 
most offensive manner. Not satisfied with severe 
rules to regulate the conduct of its members, within 
a few years of its organization the Society undertook 
to prescribe what faith they should have, even in 
matters of which, in the nature of things, these self- 
constituted rulers were themselves wholly ignorant. 
As early as the year 1694 they made a law, that " if 
any should deny the validity of Christ's sufferings, 
blood, resurrection, ascension, or glory in the hea- 

7 



74 THE SOCIETY OE FRIENDS. 

vens/' and " persist in error in point of faith/' « he 
shall be dealt with according to gospel order ;'' the 
meaning of which is, that he shall be disowned by 
the Society. 

This article of the English Discipline was never 
formally adopted in America. It is believed there 
never was a period when Friends in this country would 
have received it. The American Discipline reads 
thus : <« If any shall deny the divinity of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ," the immediate revelation of 
the Holy Spirit, or the authenticity of the Scriptures, 
and persist in their error, testimony against them 
shall issue,'* &c. There is a material difference in the 
letter of the two Disciplines, but in spirit they are the 
same. They both assume to decide points of doctrine 
on which they have no better means of judging than 
those they testify against. 

We have no reason to doubt the sincerity of those 
who carry such a discipline into effect. We suppose 
they act faithfully according to the state they are in, 
but we think such proceedings never could occur in 
an enlightened Christian community. 

The early Quakers performed a great work; but 
valiant as they were, they were not perfect, and mo- 
dern Quakers deny their own principles when they 
make them and their testimonies objects of idolatry. 

It is a contradiction to attempt to prescribe a pre- 
cise faith to a Society whose primary principle is indi- 
viduality, or to expect Monthly Meetings to be go- 
verned by the evidence of truth, and yet to insist upon 
their conformity to certain written rules, established 
perhaps, a hundred years before. 

It may be said that there is discretion allowed in 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 75 

the exercise of the Discipline, and this is true, to a 
limited extent ; but there are many cases in which the 
Discipline is imperative. I have sat in Monthly Meet- 
ings for a series of years, and on the various Commit- 
tees usually appointed therein, and I never knew the 
Discipline departed from. It has been my lot to see 
many cases, in the dealing with and disownment of 
members, from which my own . feelings revolted. 
Many cases in which the benevolent feelings of valu- 
able Friends, appeared to have been violated in order 
to uphold the Discipline; I have seen men of natural 
kindness and tenderness become hard-hearted and 
severe, I have seen justice turned backwards, and 
mercy laid aside. 

Many such instances occur in the usual course of 
events in the Society of Friends. The language of 
conduct, has invariably been, " We have a law, and 
by our law he ought to die." Friends act in their 
meeting capacities in a way in which they would be 
ashamed to act as individuals. These are facts too 
common to admit of contradiction. Friends will of 
course say that they endeavor to act with tenderness. 
I deny it not ; so also does the executioner when he 
enforces the law. He regrets the necessity, but he also 
says : " We have a law, and by our law he ought to 
die." They are but different manifestations of the 
same spirit, and in the Society of Friends it is the 
result of an organization, formed in other times, 
wholly unadapted to the spirit of the age, the 
effect of which is to deprive individuals of their natu- 
ral benevolence. So strikingly is this the case, that 
the members of Society, (I speak of those more active 
in their meetings,) appear to be more religious out of 



76 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

their meetings than in them. The effect of the Dis- 
cipline is to harden their hearts. Again, and again, 
have I witnessed the conflict in individual minds be- 
tween the kindly feelings of their nature, and the 
requirements of the Discipline. I have known Com- 
mittees to acknowledge that individuals have done the 
best they could under the circumstances, and yet with 
this language upon their lips, they have disowned 
them, because the rules of the Society required it. 

Many cases of hardship have passed under my ob- 
servation. Children grow up with a strong attach- 
ment to the Society in which they were born, and yet 
the tie that binds them to it is sundered for causes 
which, to an unprejudiced mind, must seem frivolous 
in the extreme. A long and sad catalogue might be 
drawn, if that were needful. In many cases it is a 
real disadvantage to be a member of the Society. I 
have known the most touching appeals to be made by 
the friends of individuals, not to disown, where injury 
would result. In one case, a physician, not a mem- 
ber of Society, requested the Committee not to dis- 
own, fearing it might result in the death of his 
patient, assuring them that every thing might be 
hoped from forbearance. It was in vain. He had 
been a previous oflFender and he was disowned. 

In a failure in business involving no moral delin- 
quency, the disownment was brought into court at a 
critical time as an argument against the party, and 
had, it was believed, a highly injurious and improper 
ejBFect. 

In cases involving moral wrong, a record is made 
of it, to be a stigma upon generations yet unborn. 

Language fails me in attempting to convey the 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 77 

leep feeling of pain and sorrow that these disown- 
ments by the Society of Friends, have brought over 
my mind. To such an extent has this been carried, 
that I estimate that three-fourths of the children of 
my cotemporaries have been disowned. 

Where are the descendants of those estimable men 
who first settled this province ; they are mostly ex- 
tinct, as respects the sect ; not because they have vio- 
lated any moral law, or have not been excellent men 
and citizens, performing faithfully their duty accord- 
ing to their conceptions of right, but because they 
have infringed some rule not adapted to human nature. 

I would willingly pass over a reference to particu- 
lar cases, were it not needful for me to sustain general 
statements by facts that can admit of no dispute. 

Every person marrying contrary to the order of 
Society, is disowned, unless he or she make an 
acknowledgment of regret, which in general they are 
not willing to do ; the spirit of this acknowledgment 
must be that the Society is right, and that they are 
wrong. This was at one period carried to such an 
extreme, that parents were required not to give por- 
tions of their estate to children who had thus married, 
without first advising with the men's meeting of which 
they were members. The general purport of this 
discipline was, that parents should treat their chil- 
dren as aliens, until they should make satisfactory 
concessions to the meeting. They were not to receive 
them, entertain them, or be familiar with them, until 
the meeting to which they belonged was sensible of 
their true repentance. If parents deviated from this, 
they were to be closely dealt with, and not permitted 
to sit in meetings of discipline. These requirements 

7* 



78 THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 

continued many years, and were no doubt rigorously 
enforced. We may call it barbarous, and yet it was 
but carrying out to its ultimate end the Discipline of 
the Society. 

This severity never was fully enforced in this coun- 
try, yet we know one case in Maryland in which 
parents were obliged, under pain of disownment, to 
make an acknowledgment to the meeting, for having 
received a child into their house a few days after being 
married out of the order of Society. 

My impression, however, is, that the English Disci- 
pline was most consistent with itself. 

Why should we disown members, and thus deprive 
them of those privileges which we consider so essential, 
in a religious point of view, and yet receive them with 
affection and kindness in social communion. The 
explanation is easy : in our families we act as men 
and Christians ; in our meetings, as sectarians and 
bigots. 

If we separate our children from religious commu- 
nion, to be consistent we should also refuse social in- 
tercourse with them. The idea of early Friends was, 
that when they married out of the Society,^they 
married unblievers, and thus separated themselves 
from the Church of Christ. 

I am aware of the arguments that are used regard- 
ing marriages with those of other Societies. If they 
they are plausible, they do not apply to cases where 
persons marry those who are as much Quakers as 
themselves, save only in membership. Appeals of 
this kind have often been made, but they have been 
of no avail. The language is, the law and must be ful- 
filled. In other cases, persons have applied to be 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. ^ 79 

received into membership in order to accomplish their 
marriage with individuals who are Friends ; it has 
been equally fruitless. If we suppose, as no doubt is 
many times the case, that individuals under the best 
influences they can command, enter into the marriage 
state with persons who are not members, they perform 
what may be deemed a religious act in so doing. And 
yet the Society of Friends considers it an offence, and 
the anomaly is presented, that they must deny the 
fundamental principles of the Society in order to re- 
tain their membership. 

In one case of this kind, after many years expe- 
rience, a woman observed that she had been disowned 
for the best act of her life. 

Many have been disowned for being present at 
marriages performed out of what is called the order of 
Society ; this is when either one or both parties have 
been members. 

In a case thatoccurredinlreland, where the parties 
chose to adopt a more simple form of marriage than 
that among Friends, besides the parties themselves, 
ten others were disowned for being present. 

On another occasion, a person who was pre- 
sent at a marriage, when both parties had been 
previously disowned, and read the marriage certificate, 
was disowned for the act, though it was not what they 
termed a disorderly marriage. 

In a case that occurred within a few years, under 
my own observation, an estimable young woman, a 
member of the Society of Friends, was married to an 
Episcopalian. The Discipline did not allow the cere- 
mony to be performed under the parental roof ; she 
went to the Episcopalian Church where a number of 



80 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

her friends accompanied her. They were all searched 
out by the Monthly Meetings of which they were mem- 
bers, and all disowned, against whom proof could be 
found, and who did not make an apology. One per- 
son who stood on the steps of the church, which she 
was accidentally passing, though she did not absolute- 
ly witness the performance of the marriage ceremony, 
was also disowned. It was construed into being pres- 
ent at the marriage, and she refused to make an ac- 
knowledgment. These individuals are all living, and 
worthy, estimable people. They had been educated 
Quakers, their associations were with that Society, 
and no evil could be laid to their charge. This is 
not worse than many other cases, and is the natural 
eflfect of a cold, inexorable, unfeeling Discipline. 

It is a common practice for members to leave the 
apartment at the moment the ceremony is performed, 
and return immediately after. This satisfies the Dis- 
cipline. 

If there are any neighborhoods where this occurrence 
has not taken place, they are the exceptions. We 
know of none such. In one case, within our know- 
ledge, it is estimated that thirty persons left the room 
at the moment the ceremony was to be performed, 
and though they returned immediately after, the let- 
ter of the Discipline was not violated, and they es- 
caped disownment. If this subterfuge is degrading 
to the minds of those who practice it, how much more 
so to the association that establishes rules from which 
it comes, and that connives at it. The cases above re- 
ferred to, are in accordance with the usual practice 
of the Society. Many parents have been disowned for 
allowing their children to be married in their houses; 



THE SOCIETY OP FRIENDS. 81 

others for attending places of worship belonging to 
other societies, although alleging that their own rneet^ 
ing was never neglected for that purpose. Some for 
having music in their houses ; for non attendance of 
meetings ; for paying a militia fine, &c. And in many 
of these cases the parties have had a deep and reve- 
rential attachment to Friends, and have felt it a great 
hardship to be deprived of their right of membership. 
A physician of unblemished character, still living, 
was disowned for giving to some disabled soldiers 
certificates that they were suitable objects for the 
military bounty of the government. This was con- 
strued into a connivance with warlike affairs incon- 
sistent with membership in the Society. 

There are many other causes of disownment equal- 
ly frivolous, which will suggest themselves to minds 
familiar with the proceedings of the Society. 

Isaac Pearson, of England, wrote in the last century 
a pamphlet entitled, " The implacable cruelty of the 
Quakers in Cumberland." He charged them with per- 
secution in disowning him for being occasionally pre- 
sent in his wife's chamber, when she was dangerously 
ill, near the birth of one of her children. This was 
deemed an indecorum by some of the women who 
were present. He was required to make an apology 
to the meeting, which he declined. He was disowned, 
and appealed, when the disownment was confirmed. 

This affords a striking instance of the abuse of 
power ; and how little dependence there is, that supe- 
rior meetings will redress wrongs. There is probably 
always a predisposition to sustain the proceedings of 
inferior meetings. 

Arbitrary measures appear to have been coeval 



82 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

with the discipline. I make the following extracts 
from the "Memoir of the life of Elizabeth Fry," 
edited by two of her daughters, who, it is understood 
are not Quakers. If this work had been submitted to 
the revision of the Society, such passages would no 
doubt have been suppressed, 

<' I cannot deny that, much as I love the principle, 
earnestly as I desire to uphold it, bitter experience 
has proved to me, that Friends do rest too much in 
externals ; and that valuable, indeed jewels of the 
first water, as are many amongst them, yet there are 
also serious evils in our Society, and amongst its 
members." * ^k * * * * rpj^^ affairs of our 
Society cause me real anxiety and pain, and reconcile 
me, in measure, to so many of my children leaving 
Friends. Though it is painful and humbling in my 
own meeting, my children's names being on the books 
only for disownment." 

The natural effect of the Discipline against paying 
militia fines and church rates, is to lead to deception; 
and requiring acknowledgments from those who trans- 
gress the Discipline, leads to hypocrisy. 

In a Society constituted like that of Friends, it 
might seem to be a natural right, that each should 
have the liberty of examining the proceedings of meet- 
ings, censuring where they deserve censure, and prais- 
ing where they deserve praise. To deny this, is des- 
potism and not liberty, and yet it is denied by the 
Society of Friends. A rigid and severe censorship 
over the press has been in long use among them, and 
a member is not allowed to publish anything touching 
even incidentally upon the doctrines or practices of 
the Society, without first submitting the manuscript 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 83 

to the inspection of the meeting appointed for that 
purpose. Limited by the narrow confines of the So- 
ciety, and without the power of punishment, yet we 
think it is as rigid as that of Napoleon during his iron 
reign. Under this censorship, not only every spon- 
taneous sentiment in new works, not in accordance 
with a particular standard, is expunged, but writings 
that have been heretofore published have been to a 
considerable extent mutilated to suit the feelings of 
the age. 

From this cause, no certain confidence can be placed 
in the authenticity of Friends' writings as they now 
appear. 

We design not to censure the early Quakers ; they 
performed a great work, and the manliness with which 
they breasted the torrent of sectarianism around them, 
is worthy of the highest respect. 

But it is evident they were not strong enough to 
carry out their own principles : the day, perhaps, had 
not yet come for this ; and it is not improbable, had 
they boldly avowed them to their full extent, that 
Friends would have been led to the stake. We have 
seen evidence of this in the menaces used to William 
Penn during his confinement in the tower. There 
were, no doubt, causes for a censorship at that period; 
that have long since passed away. We know of no 
apology for it at the present time. 

This censorship has been carried to a fearful extent, 
and has had the effect to suppress many just criticisms 
on the proceedings of the Society. 

A respectable printer, now living, was a few years 
ago disowned for printing a work, not containing a 
word immoral, irreligious, or unkind to any sect 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

or individual, but which in some parts had a remote 
bearing upon the doctrines of the Society. He ap- 
pealed to the Yearly Meeting against such flagrant 
injustice, alleging that he had done it in the line of 
his business, that he had known nothing of the con- 
tents of the work. He appealed in vain. 

In the early days of the Federal Government, a 
Sedition Law was enacted to prevent improper publi- 
cations. It produced the most unpleasant effects, and 
had it not been repealed, would probably have sub- 
verted the Government. 

An unlimited censorship over the press is only con- 
sistent with despotism. As freedom has prevailed in 
England, it has been abandoned. It is error that fears 
investigation — not truth ; individuals, acting as such, 
need not commit the Society. They publish their 
own opinions ; to all who deem them unsound, they 
avail nothing. We think the greatest injury that has 
resulted from unsound opinions, has arisen from the 
attempt to suppress them. 

The censorship over the press has been relaxed in 
the London Yearly Meeting, and from this cause some 
of those extraordinary exhibitions of the Quaker doc- 
trine, to which we have alluded, are to be attributed. 
Admitting they are wrong, which the American Qua- 
kers seem to suppose, the best way to correct errors 
is to expose them. 

Members have a right to express their sentiments 
in a meeting of Discipline ; but if their views be not 
in accordance with those of the Society, they are not, 
in general, deemed worthy of consideration. Many 
being unaccustomed to public speaking, find it an un- 
suitable means to convey their sentiments. Thus the 



THE SOCIETY OF FEIENDS. 85 

voice of the great body of the meeting is in effect un- 
heard. The Constitution of the United States pro- 
hibits Congress from making any law " abridging the 
freedom of the press/' That of Pennsylvania is still 
more explicit. " Printing presses shall be free to every 
person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of 
the Legislature, or any branch of Government, and no 
law shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof." 
These provisions express the general sentiments of the 
country, and the Society of Friends have no right to 
violate them. 

In the oligarchy which governs, majorities are not 
respected. The sense of the meeting, which some- 
times means a small minority, decides all disputed 
questions. By this means the errors I have alluded 
to have been perpetuated. This power exists in each 
of the divisions of the Society, and is inimical to free- 
dom and progress, because it cannot believe that any 
thing is valuable that does not conform to its own 
views. It decides what is sound and what is unsound 
doctrine ; what men ought to believe and what they 
ought to reject. By its sovereign will, it excommuni- 
cates whole meetings, and disowns individuals of the 
most estimable character, because their opinions do 
not accord with its own. 

At the time of the Hicksite division, it was esti- 
mated that but one-third of the members of Philadel- 
phia Yearly Meeting were of the party called Ortho- 
dox. Yet this minority claimed to be exclusively the 
Society of Friends. They sued the majority at the 
law, and would have taken every dollar of the com- 
mon property, had the law allowed them to do so. 

8 



86 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

They denied them the right of burial in the common 
cemetry, applied to them opprobrious names, anathe- 
matized the meetings where they had the ascendancy, 
and went through the form of disowning each member 
individually. At this period they made the following 
Discipline : 

<' If any of our members should attend the meet- 
ings of those who have separated from us, and have 
set up meetings contrary to the order and discipline 
of our religious Society, or should attend any of the 
marriages accomplished among the said people, or 
sign the certificates issued on those occasions, as it is 
giving countenance to, and acknowledging those meet- 
ings as though they were the meetings of Friends, 
this meeting declares that such conduct is of evil ten- 
dency, and repugnant to the harmony and well being 
of our religious Society ; and when such instances 
occur, Friends are desired to extend brotherly care 
and labor, that the individuals may be instructed and 
reclaimed, and if those endeavors prove inefi*ectual, 
Monthly Meetings should testify against them." 

The chief actors in this Orthodox movement were 
men of irreproachable character, of religious minds ; 
among the best members in their own Society and 
of the community. They made professions of peace, 
and were peaceable men, yet it was evidently consist- 
ent with the state they were i^, to indulge in acrimo^ 
nious and severe denunciations against men as excel- 
lent as themselves, and withal they seemed to believe 
they did God service herein, and every overture for 
conciliation made by the other division was coldly 
repelled. 

The influence of the oligarchy in Baltimore Yearly 



\ 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 87 

Meeting was still more remarkable. At the separa- 
tion, there were but seventy-six of the Orthodox, 
while there were nine hundred of the Friends, or 
Hicksites. Of fifty-four regularly appointed repre- 
sentatives from the inferior meetings, but one indivi- 
dual joined the Orthodox party; yet this small number 
claimed, and still claim, to be the genuine Society, 
rejected all inferior meetings that did not acknowledge 
their authority, and disowned their members. 

This exhibition of ecclesiastical power is worthy 
of the careful consideration of the moralist, from the 
otherwise excellent character of the men who were 
engaged in it. The body of both divisions of the So- 
ciety were, and remain to be, one people both in doc- 
trine and practice, but the oligarchy undertook to 
define, by incomprehensible and mystical language, 
which no one, we believe, can understand, the charac- 
ter and mission of Christ. 

The pioneers in this work were the English Quaker 
oligarchy. The Orthodox Friends in Philadelphia 
were in some degree their instruments, not suspecting 
that they should so soon have publicly to denounce 
the English Quaker doctrine also,* and be compelled 
to walk in the narrow path between the English 
Friends and the majority of those in America. We 
are not certain that the Hicksites would have done 
any better under the same circumstances. The Papal 
power originated the idea, that what it called the true 
Church was the proper interpreter, not only of the 
Scriptures, but of every alleged spiritual influence ; 

* See an Appeal for Ancient Doctrines, published by Phila- 
delphia Yearly Meeting, 1847. 



88 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

and Friends in adopting this idea as applied to their 
own Society, necessarily subject themselves to all its 
consequences. 

It may reasonably be questioned whether a system 
that violates the charities of life, under which men 
naturally kind and humane became hard-hearted and 
severe, is worthy of respect. 

The fundamental law of Pennsylvania is very ex- 
plicit in guarding individual rights. It says, that 
« no human authority can interfere with the rights of 
conscience."* Is it not a direct violation of this article 
of the Constitution to dismiss men from the Society 
for their conscientious persuasion, and then, as a con- 
sequence of such dismissal, forcibly deprive them of 
their right in the common property ? We think it is. 
We think too that other parts of the Discipline would 
be deemed illegal by the courts of Pennsylvania. 

Many individuals have contributed largely to build- 
ing meeting houses and to other Society affairs. 
They do not even accord to those whom they disown, 
the common justice of returning to them their pro- 
perty. It avails nothing to say that Friends are bound 
by a mutual compact. A compact contrary to law is 
void, and it is not a mutual compact where the laws 
are made by an oligarchy. 

We listened, in the Green Street Yearly Meeting of 
the present year, to a long discussion on the subject 
of the propriety of allowing individuals to put up 
small stones at the graves of their deceased friends. 
The question was, whether these stones were monu- 
ments, which are forbidden in the Discipline. A mi- 

'-^ See Constitution of Pennsylvania, 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, 89 

nority, as we thought, decided that they were monu- 
ments, and objected to any change. This minority 
appeared to think it a great evil to place a stone one 
foot square, to designate the grave of a deceased 
friend. Herein also they violate law. 

Whenever an interment takes place in a common 
property, that portion becomes individual property by 
the strongest of all tenures, that of possession added 
to a consideration paid. It is an established legal 
principle, that conveying a lot of land in the middle 
of a field, gives the possessor right of way to it, 
whether it is provided for in the deed of conveyance 
or not ; it also gives to him the right to erect on it 
any structure he may please, and these privileges 
cannot be denied by the Society of Friends without a 
violation of common law applicable to real estate. 
Such are the natural results of religious societies in- 
terfering with individual rights. 

I confess I am unable to understand how man, weak 
and fallible as he is, coming he knows not whence, 
and going he knows not whither, should be so forward 
to condemn a brother for speculative points of faith, 
of which they are alike ignorant, or for exercising 
what would seem to be an inherent right of choice, in 
those aflfairs that would appear to concern no one but 
himself. 

I am unable to understand how those individuals 
to whom divine mercy has been extended year after 
year, perhaps amidst many weaknesses and trans- 
gressions, can rise up to disown a member who, possi- 
bly, in the sight of the great Judge of all, has not been 
so guilty as themselves. In these disownments the 
accusers, judge, and jury, are often combined in the 

8* 



90 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

same persons, that even if the principle was right, 
the practice would be likely to be partial and unjust. 

Measures so manifestly sectarian and so inconsis- 
tent with the general intelligence and benevolence of 
individual Friends, and from the spirit of which they 
would recoil in private life, can only be traced to the 
ascendancy of erroneous preconceived opinions. 

From infancy children are taught dogmas and 
modes of faith, around which are thrown mysticism 
and sanctity, and the young mind is made to believe 
that it is sinful to doubt and dangerous to investi- 
gate, and thus errors in theology are more in- 
veterate, more deeply rooted, than upon any other 
subject. 

I state, without fear of contradiction, that there is 
no where to be found a more promising class of young 
persons than those who have been educated among 
Friends ; ^« no where to be met with a greater purity 
of life and sentiment, a more enviable preservation of 
a youth-like tenderness of conscience ; a deeper 
sense of the obligations of justice ; of the beauty of 
punctuality."* 

We see the social gatherings of these young peo- 
ple always with emotions of pleasure, but mingled 
with regret that the Society of Friends, even before 
they obtain their majority, will come in among them 
with its cold, unfeeling hand, and do its utmost to 
separate friend from friend, brothers from sisters, 
parents from children, and this by the means of a 
discipline foreign to the feelings of the age,* and ex- 
perienced often by persons with minds less pure, less 
religious than those they disown. 

^ See << George Fox and his Friends/' by William Howitt. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 91 

The reasons Friends give for their peculiar disci- 
pline is, " that the Truth, Church, or body of Christ 
may not suffer.'* Again and again is the idea 
repeated, that these regulations are necessary to save 
the Truth from reproach, without seeming to realize 
that Truth and Integrity stand on an impregnable 
basis and require no shield. 

In proportion as the complicated machinery of this 
system engaged the attention of Friends, their power 
and moral strength diminished, until they had become 
a small sectarian society, receiving comparatively little 
respect. Their numbers have lessened, their influence 
is gone. 

The want of success of any particular system is 
not in itself, proof of its incorrectness. A true 
principle exists in its own inherent power, and de- 
rives no support from the opinions of men. Were it 
otherwise, we might put Christianity and Mahometan- 
ism, Popery and Prelacy, in a balance, and decide 
upon the truth of their doctrines by the weight of 
numbers. But the failure of a system of morals 
is evidence that it is not adapted to the state of 
society, and may lead us very seriously to inquire 
whether the system itself is correct. We claim to 
have shown by evidence, which we think no rational 
mind can deny, that the organization among Friends 
has been the result of weakness and not strength. 
Even those testimonies which contained in themselves 
so much power, coming, as they seemed to come, from 
an intelligence above human thought and conception, 
and which left those great marks in politics and 
morals to w^hich we have alluded, are shorn of their 
strength when they are adhered to as the testimonies 



92 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

and doctrines of men of other generations ; and yet 
there is, perhaps, no important document issues from 
any division of the Society, that does not claim that 
we shall fulfil these testimonies and this discipline, 
because they are those of ancient Friends. And thus 
the progress of the Society has been more effectually 
retarded than if there had been an enactment that 
it should go no further. It seems to be a law of our 
spiritual nature, that when the mind is filled with 
the opinions of others, it becomes disqualified to dis- 
tinguish truth. 

Has that intelligence that Friends believe gave 
forth those testimonies, ceased to operate, that the 
present should be lost in the past ? This will not be 
admitted to be the case by the Society, and there is 
still abundant scope for the exercise of that spirit of 
philanthropy and benevolence which formerly pro- 
duced great results, and which, through channels as 
yet perhaps unsuspected, is, we believe, to prove of 
increased benefit to the family of man. 

We read of accumulated crimes and sufferings with 
a deep conviction that they are absolutely within the 
control of an enlightened community. The funda- 
mental principle of Friends practically carried out, 
is, in itself, moral reformation. How far this reforma- 
tion may be extended by minds properly alive to the 
subject, is beyond our feeble conception. 

Every true movement, political, civil, moral or re- 
ligious, has but one basis, the revelation of God to the 
soul of man, and they are all equally religious when 
they come from pure minds. 

We have said on a former page, that every reli- 
gious organization, (so called) is a civil government; 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 93 

we may add our opinion that so far as civil govern- 
ment is just and true, it is also a religious govern- 
ment. The principle of government is inherent in, 
and inseparable from, society. So also is the reli- 
gious principle inseparable from the nature of man. 

Religion may be termed a union with the Divine 
harmony. That man must be blind indeed who 
does not recognize it throughout the human famiiy. 
Amidst all the paganism, materialism, and the ten- 
dency to symbolic worship, there is an under-current 
of spiritualism, of unadulterated Christianity. It is 
manifested in our families, in our work-shops, in our 
fields, and it is that which preserves us as a people 
in our civil relations. * 

Barclay labored to prove that the Divine light in 
the mind was not a natural light ; other Friends ob- 
ject to its being deemed an inherent principle ; others 
again reject the word innate. Those that understand 
these will speak of them as they please ; we recognize 
no light or truth that is not referable to the eternal 
mind. 

In the whole range of human affairs, no situation 
is to be found that would not be benefitted by men 
who looked inwardly rather than outwardly for the 
evidences of truth. 

In the army of Cromwell there were many Quaker 
soldiers, who were persecuted and suffered deeply for 
adhering to a more rigid system of morality than was 
deemed right by the officers.* And from the soldier 
and the statesman, down to the humblest mechanic, 
it may be assumed that introversion of mind is the 

*§ee Eesse; 2d vol. 



94 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

surest qualification for the performance of every duty, 
however menial or however exalted. 

Penn, and his cotemporaries in the province min- 
gled deeply in politics. It has been a prevalent idea 
that herein Penn lost ground in his religious charac- 
ter. We think that deep religious feeling was much 
more marked in his politics than in his sectarian con- 
troversies ; yet it is probable that the Orthodox party 
in either division of the Society, would disown both 
Penn and Logan for the part they took on the subject 
of war as referred to on a former page. We have 
seen in the present day both Hicksite and Orthodox, 
so called, disowning some of their most respectable 
members, because they manifested their opposition to 
slavery- in a way that was not in accordance with 
the exact usage and prescription of the governing 
class. Thus has it been in all ages, that assumed or- 
thodoxy has paralyzed many of the noblest efforts of 
the human mind. 

These men that have been thus disowned are 
worthy of double honor, in having nobly opposed negro 
slavery on the one hand, and ecclesiastical domina- 
tion on the other. 

We may be told that the superior character of in 
dividual Friends may be ascribed to the Discipline. 
We think not. The tendency of coercive enactments 
is to harden the heart, and the exercise of the disci- 
pline of the Society forms no exception. Excellent, 
kind, and generous men may of course be concerned 
therein, but in proportion thereunto, their vital reli- 
gion is likely to be lessened. 

To the idea " that man should watch over himself,'' 
we ascribe all the superiority that exists, if such 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 95 

there be, in the Society of Friends; as a class, we think 
there are no better members of the community, both 
in their civil and social relations. There are districts 
of country where the Quaker influence prevails, in 
which, for successive years, there have been no magis- 
trates, because there was no occasion for them. The 
Quaker doctrine, that each individual must reform 
himself, is the true ground of human progress. 

Having thus expressed our opinion that the contra- 
dictions existing in the doctrines of the Society, and 
the exacting nature of their discipline, have produ- 
ced their natural fruits — discord and confusion — we 
shall endeavor to exemplify by facts the truth of our 
position. 



SCHISMS IN THE SOCIETY. 

«« Schism,'' according to Webster, ^^ is a separation, 
a breach of unity among people of the same religious 
faith." I am thus particular, because there is a party 
that has denied that there has been a division in the 
the Society, and they also have called in question its 
schisms,* though in common minds both are beyond 
contradiction. 

The history of the Society shows that, from the 
time of its first extended hierarchy, it has been sub- 
ject to schisms and internal difficulties. Whatever 
the immediate and exciting causes may have been, 

*See the evidence of Samuel Bettle at the trial at Steuben- 
ville. See, also, the works of Joseph Gurney Bevan. 



96 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

we cannot evade the conclusion that they have 
arisen from a defective organization, from a Disci- 
cipline not adapted to the principles of human 
nature. 

The first open schism of which we have an account 
was that of John Perot and his followers. The prin- 
cipal charge against Perot was, that he kept his hat 
on in time of public prayer, to which was added 
some minor offences, such as letting his beard 
grow, and writing some letters without affixing his sur- 
name. 

Here is presented a curious anomaly. The Society 
objected to singing psalms in their meetings, on the 
ground that ''all could not in truth sing the same 
song ; some would be likely to be unqualified." Yet 
it was made an offence for which men were separated 
from the Society, that they refused to make the 
outward manifestation of joining in prayer — for 
which a whole meeting was likely to be still less 
qualified. 

At a period of great public excitement, when there 
had been many eccentricities among Friends that 
might be deemed unjustifiable, it was no doubt felt 
imperative to resist any innovations upon the estab- 
lished order, and herein some may find an apology 
for the proceedings toward John Perot. Yet, viewed 
in a dispassionate manner, without reference to those 
excitements, when all the parties thereto have passed 
away, it appears to have been among the most arbi- 
trary proceedings that ever took place in the Society. 
Friends had a very just scruple against uncovering 
the head as a mark of respect to men ; they who did 
so were considered offenders. In this case they were 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 97 

made offenders and disowned for not uncovering the 
head at a prayer, the force of which they might 
not feel, and the words of which might not be adapted 
to them. 

Man, by the constitution of his nature, is a prayer- 
ful being. We suppose that each individual soul is 
inspired by the feeling that there is a Supreme Good. 
When men speak of progress and improvement, they 
acknowledge that there is an excellence not yet 
attained. Man pays homage to this Power in 
a thousand ways. His prayers may be selfish, but 
they are according to the state he is in, and they 
may sometimes be the breathings of a pure spirit, 
rather of praise and thanksgiving than of prayer. 
Hagar, when in the wilderness, made this emphatic 
appeal, '« Thou God seest me." 

So varied are the states and feelings of men's 
minds ; and yet the Society of Friends have hereto- 
fore required uniformity from all. We believe the 
Hicksite division of the Society have ceased to con- 
sider this an offence. We have seen several at a time 
sitting in their meetings in time of public prayer. 
It was not supposed to express disapprobation of the 
prayer, nor did it occasion any confusion. We have 
seen in the public assemblies of other Societies, some 
standing, some sitting, some kneeling, without confu- 
sion or any idea of disrespect. We can only regard 
the proceedings of Friends in the case alluded to, as 
a direct violation of their principles. 

The next schism arose from an avowed dissatisfac- 
tion with the Discipline. Those objections which had 
existed from its first establishment, openly manifested 
themselves in different parts of England. This 

9 



98 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

schism occasioned much writing and speaking, and 
many protracted meetings. Some of the best men in 
the Society joined in it, alleging that the Discipline 
was a work of supererogation ; that they had lived in 
love and unity without such regulations. The Ortho- 
dox party finally prevailed ; but for many years there 
were valuable Friends who disapproved of the Disci- 
pline, and for more than half a century there were 
those who refused to be present at the inquisitorial 
part of the business ; and in some nieetings an- 
swering the queries was deferred until all other busi- 
ness was attended to, in order to give such persons 
an opportunity to retire. 

Some of the abettors of this movement became 
so abusive, and put themselves so manifestly in the 
wrong, that the real nature and ground of their dis- 
satisfaction was lost sight of. 

Wilkinson and Story, both preachers, were the two 
prominent men in this schism. They were of irre- 
proachable character ; and though the meeting dis- 
owned them, there is no evidence of a want of cor- 
rectness in their views. These Friends were particu- 
larly dissatisfied with Robert Barclay's work on 
church government, and the author was required to 
make an explanation, which he did in a lame and fee- 
ble manner. 

The arbitrary proceedings of the Society were par- 
ticularly manifested in this afiair. William Rogers, 
an eminent merchant of Bristol, wrote an account of 
his scruples and dissatisfaction, for which he was re- 
quired to make an apology. Another Friend who 
printed the work, made an acknowledgement to the 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 99 

meeting also ; a third who sold the book refused to 
make the ackaowledgment of having done wrong, and 
was disowned. Thus was established at this early pe- 
riod, that severe, and, as we deem, unwarrantable cen- 
sorship over the press, to which we have before alluded. 

A man of sane mind would hardly propose to form 
a society without discipline ; such could not exist ; and 
the question with Wilkinson and Story was, whether 
those rules and regulations which had grown up spon- 
taneously iu the individual meetings, were not of a 
more Christian character and better suited to the 
profession of Friends than an extended church hierar- 
chy, comparable to that of the Episcopal, Presbyte- 
rian, or the Komish church. 

The contention arising out of this schism was long 
continued, and gave Friends much trouble. It finally 
merged in doctrines which, we believe, made no part 
of the original dispute. 

The third schism was that of George Keith, and 
appears to have originated in doctrines. Keith 
was joined by some respectable men in Pennsylvania, 
but from his own account we infer that he was a con- 
tentious and troublesome man, who never had much 
idea of the spiritual doctrine of Friends. He was 
charged by Friends with having preached two Christs, 
because he " preached faith in Christ within, and 
Christ without.'' Friends deckred they knew but 
one principle, and that was the light within. 
Thomas Fitzwater, a preacher, said in the meet- 
ing, that he "knew no man Christ Jesus in hea- 
ven without him, but the grace of God within him." 
Thomas Lloyd, the estimable deputy Governor, Wil- 



100 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

liam Stockdale, an ancient minister, and others, spoke 
to the same effect.* The doctrine of spiritualism 
was evidently the prevailing doctrine in the meeting 
in Philadelphia on this occasion. Friends alleged 
that their faith in Christ was according to Scripture, 
Keith replied that their proposing to give their confes- 
sion of faith in the words of Scripture, amounted to 
nothing, seeing that they gave to Scripture their own 
interpretation. The contest was very earnest and 
long continued, giving rise to many publications on 
both sides. 

The title of one of Keith*s works was, " The Deism 
of William Penn and his friends, destructive to the 
Christian Religion.'* It is evident that what was 
Orthodox in Pennsylvania in the days of George 
Keith, was deemed heresy by the party termed Or- 
thodox at the time of the Hicksite separation. Keith 
complained of the great inconsistency of Quaker 
magistrates issuing orders to armed vessels to cap- 
ture some pirates who at that time came into the 
Delaware. These magistrates, some of whom were 
ministers, made a distinction between acting as Qua- 
kers and as Magistrates. There was crimination 
and recrimination in no measured terms ; finally, 
Keith and some of his adherents were imprisoned on 
a charge of speaking disrespectfully of the magistrates. 
These proceedings form the darkest page in the early 
civil history of Pennsylvania. 

I think it is evident that this schism never could 
have occurred, but from dissatisfaction with the orga- 
nisation among Friends. There were those who were 

* See Works of George Keith. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 101 

willing to embrace every opportunity to oppose the 
undue influence of particular classes in the Society. 

The fourth considerable schism was that of the 
Free Quakers, at the time of the American Revolu- 
tion, when many were disowned who advocated defen- 
sive war. 

The gospel spirit of non-resistance is a chimera, 
when taken in connexion with civil or religious orga- 
nization. Those who join in Societies must take them 
with all their necessary consequences. 

If men are perfect, there is no longer need of a 
government of outward laws. If they are imperfect, 
there must be a power to restrain them, or society 
comes to an end. The Quakers have always, of neces- 
sity, acted upon this principle, and there is no evading 
it, so long as they form a Society. 

The Society of Friends would have saved themselves 
much embarrassment, if they had been satisfied to be 
what they really were, instead of professing to be 
what they were not. William Penn, by the Charter 
of Pennsylvania, was made Captain General under 
the British Crown, and he accepted the trust : with- 
out it he could not have carried on the Government. 
For many years the highest places in the Colony 
were filled by eminent Quakers ; thus they became 
deputy military officers. 

The error was, in Friends making a profes- 
sion that could not be sustained. James Logan, 
a member of the Society, on whom much of the 
management of the affairs of the province had for 
many years devolved, addressed a letter to the Yearly 
Meeting, avowing his sentiments in favor of defensive 
war, and asking its interference to prevent members 

9* 



102 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

of Society, opposed to self-defence, from becoming 
members of the Provincial Assembly, as he thought 
them unable to carry on the Government; he describes 
the embarrassment William Penn himself felt, in 
acting as Chief Magistrate, and said he had deter- 
mined to act by deputy as if he had returned to the 
country. 

In two addresses to the Legislature, Penn advises 
compliance with the Queen's request, by making appro- 
priations for the erection of fortifications on the fron- 
tier.* Logan says, ^'before he himself accepted the 
trusts he held in the province, he had well considered 
the nature of government, and saw clearly that it was 
founded on force. He Avas consistent in advocating 
defensive war. Penn was inconsistent in making a 
profession that he could not sustain. 

Thus the two most eminent men in the province 
avowed their inability to carry into effect a rule of 
the Society of which they were members. 

The error was in the Society undertaking to inter- 
fere with private judgment. If Penn had returned 
to America and carried out his plan of acting by 
deputy, we do not perceive how the difficulty would 
have been obviated. 

In an address to the Council of officers by George 
Fox, he says : " Had you been faithful to the power 
of the Lord God which first carried you on, you would 
have gone into the midst of Spain to require the blood 
of the innocent; * * * you would have knocked 
at Rome's gate, and demanded the Pope himself to 
offer up all his torture houses, his racks and in- 
quisitions, which you would have found as black as 

* Penn^s Works, folio, Ist vol., p. 14G. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 103 

Hell. * * * But many valiant captains, soldiers 
and oflScers, have been put out of the army because 
of their faithfulness to the Lord ; it may be for saying 
< thou ' to a single person, or for wearing their hats. 
Oh ! how are men fallen from that which they were 
in at first, when thousands of us went in the front of 
you, and were with you in the greatest heat."* 

Edward Burrough says : ^« The Lord hath owned 
and honored the English army, and done good things 
for them, and by them, in this nation and age." He 
also says to the officers and soldiers : " He will honor 
you as his workmen, if you be faithful to him, and 
walk in his council and wisdom;" and he desires 
them, that they " may not rest and give ease to the 
flesh, until they have visited Rome and enquired after 
the innocent blood that is buried there, and avenged 
the blood of the innocent in Spain and Italy."t Isaac 
Pennington says, that " the present state of things 
may, and doth require the use of the sword, if it is 
borne uprightly, and that the Lord will not suffer 
that Government to want fitting instruments for the 
managing thereof, who wait on him in his fear, to 
have the edge of it rightly directed, "t Barclay says: 
<< We shall not say that war, undertaken on just occa- 
sions, is altogether unlawful. "§ These are nearly 
verbatim the words that are used. 

* This address may be found at length in the Picture of 
Quakerism. "We suppose it is entirely authentic. It only 
goes to show that Quakerism, as manifested in its early days, 
was not separated from warlike proceedings. 

f See Burrough's Works, 537 

J Pennington's "Works, 323. 

§ Barclay's Apology. 



104 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

It is to be particularly remarked in this connection, 
as we have said in a former page, that the first move- 
ment in that series of events, that led to the Revo- 
lutionary war, was made by Samuel Jennings, a 
minister in the Society, and his friends, who state that 
they expected a combat, and were determined to resist 
the arbitrary imposition of taxes on entering the 
Delaware, as being taxation without representation, 
and therefore contrary to the British Constitution.* 

The Society of Friends have never been a non-re- 
sistant society. All their property is held by the 
power of the sword ; their deeds and title papers are 
acknowledged before a magistrate, in order to place 
them under the protection of the law, sustained by the 
military force of the country, and yet they disown a 
man for paying a militia fine. They use the magis- 
trate's sword to preserve order; others use their own; 
there may be a material diflference in results, but they 
rest on the same foundation. 

Yet the part the Society have taken in favor of 
peace, is entitled to respect. A careful consideration 
of this subject must, we think, lead to the opinion, as 
we have said on a former page, that there is in the 
principles of peace, a power the world knows not of, 
a strength of moral courage which is in itself victory. 
This is individual in its operation, and not to be ob- 
tained by a law of a Society forbidding its members 
to partake in or encourage war and bloodshed. Those 
who are clear of the tendencies that lead to war, are 
peaceable men, and none others are. We have ad- 

* See Proud's History of Pennsylvania. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 105 

verted to some remarkable instances of the benefit 
arising from the doctrine of Friends, on this subject, 
imperfectly as it was carried out by the masses ; yet 
we are not prepared to believe that the testimony 
against war has gained anything by the rigid disci- 
pline in regard to it. The Society has, no doubt, acted 
faithfully upon this subject according to the state it 
was in : but while it claimed the right of using force, 
where it deemed it necessary, we ask, whether it was 
consistent to condemn individuals for carrying the 
principle of resistance somewhat further than was 
thought proper for its own government. Friends, in 
reference to this subject, quote the text, " resist not 
evil ;'' it must be evident to the most transient obser- 
ver, that this text is a dead letter as respects the So- 
ciety. We are not aware that we have ever seen one indi- 
vidual who acted out this doctrine. It is certain that 
it is not adapted to our present state ; and to attempt 
to carry it into effect, without the mind being pre- 
pared for it, can only lead to evil. We have 
referred to some beautiful exemplifications of the 
powerful influence of the principles of peace ; but we 
confess that we do not know to what end its literal 
construction might lead. We have continually wit- 
nessed the Society defending its reputation against at- 
tacks, and the best individuals bolting their doors and 
tnking such measures as are deemed prudent, to 
resist evil, thus practically rejecting the doctrine in 
question. 

We are not arguing in favor of war, but against 
an attempt to establish a standard upon a subject so 
delicate and diflScult. 



106 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

The principle of peace operates individually, bring- 
ing its own support. It was under the power which 
this principle gave, that Friends were enabled to set- 
tle New Jersey and Pennsylvania, surrounded by 
warlike tribes of Indians, but it is a contradiction in 
terms, to speak of a non-resistant Society ; the ulti- 
mate resort of all Societies being force. 

The w^orld furnishes some very curious facts of the 
influence of the peaceable principle in particular 
cases, where individuals have passed unharmed through 
scenes of the greatest exposure. They deserve care- 
ful consideration, as manifesting influences and sym- 
pathies that are not generally recognized. The mem- 
bers of the Society of Friends have not been wanting 
in these. There are also some singular records of 
Quaker prowess. 

It is a historical fact, that the reduction of the 
French settlements on the Senegal, in the year 1758, 
was afi*ected by Thomas Gumming, a Quaker. He 
avowed to the British Ministry his aversion to the 
shedding of human blood, and expressed his opinion 
that the French would surrender ; that if he believed 
otherwise, he would have nothing to do with the expe- 
dition. He said that let the consequences be what it 
might, the sect should not be charged with what was 
his own act. 

This was the first successful enterprize of the war, 
and it is stated to have been a military expedition 
carried on according to the pacific principles of the 
Quakers, without the loss of a drop of blood on either 
side.* 

* Smollet — See Graham^s Colonial History, note 16, vol. iii. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 107 

There is a circumstance related of a ship master 
and his mate, both Quakers, capturing a company of 
Turkish pirates, more than double the number of the 
ship's crew, fully armed, not only without arms 
themselves, but renouncing every idea of personal 
violence. 

They took them into Majorca and refused offers of 
large sums of money for them. The clamour of the 
Spaniards was so great at the idea of their being set 
free, that they were obliged to ask the Turks to assist 
in navigating the vessel out of port. In despite of 
every calculation of human prudence, they took them 
to the neighborhood of Algiers, landed them safely, 
gave them their arms, provisions for their jour- 
ney, and brought the ship safely into the Thames. 
The transaction was so remarkable, that the King 
himself came alongside the ship to know the real 
history of the case. After hearing it, he said, 
<^ you have done like a fool ; you might have had 
good gain from them ; you should have brought 
the Turks to me." The reply was, " I thought it 
better for them to be in their own country."* 

The fifth open schism in the Society was in Ireland, 
in which some of the best Friends were disowned, in 
consequence of their dissatisfaction with the Disci- 
pline. There were also charges made by the Orthodox, 
of their being tinctured with Socinian or Unitarian 
doctrine. In carefully reviewing the account that is 
preserved of this dispute, we consider it a lasting dis- 
grace to European Quakerism, that it should have 
countenanced these disownments. The ground of the 

* See Seweirs History, edition 1728, page 382. 



108 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

whole difficulty was the attempt to decide what faith 
their members should have, and to deny the right of 
private judgment. Those disowned appear to have 
been amongst the most excellent men in the country; 
men of whom any society might be proud, if it were 
proud of any thing. Their excellence was the result 
of independence of thought and feeling, and yet for 
this they were made offenders, and denied the right of 
membership. We wonder not that many estimable 
Friends declined being any longer members of a so- 
ciety so arbitrary and unreasonable. The narrative 
of this schism is worthy of an attentive perusal. For 
publishing an account of it, William Rathbone, one 
of the most respectable men in England, was dis- 
owned. We do not pretend to endorse their doctrine; 
with this we have nothing to do; but so far as we can 
judge. It was sustained by the early records of Qua- 
kerism ; but whether it was or not, the broad princi- 
ple of the right of private judgment ought to have 
protected them while their lives were blameless. 

The sixth schism was that of Elias Hicks and his 
friends, and which it was supposed embraced a majori- 
ty of the Society in America. 

This separation was by some believed to have 
originated in doctrines, and the Hicksites, or Friends, 
as they termed themselves, in opposition to those 
called Orthodox, gave some sanction to this idea ; 
but the real diflSculty was, the arbitrary endeavors 
of the Elders, and a few others of the Philadelphia 
Friends, to make every thing in the Society bend to 
their views. This had given increasing dissatifaction 
for many years — and we believe the crisis would not 
have been long delayed, even if Elias Hicks had not 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 109 

appeared among them. He was the ostensible, but 
not the real cause of the difficulty. This is apparent 
to those who know the fact, that he was not in Phila- 
delphia at the time the Yearly Meeting separated, 
which led the way to all that followed, and that he 
was opposed to the proceeding. The active promoters 
of the separation were the English Friends, who were 
travelling in this country, and it is chargeable to an 
organization which gives to a small minority the 
power to control the proceedings of the Society. John 
Comly, the clerk of the Yearly Meeting, appointed 
by the Orthodox themselves, an approved minister of 
the Society, a man of remarkable stayedness of charac- 
ter, never we believe suspected of unsound doctrine, 
and of unimpeachable integrity, was the principal 
agent in effecting the separation. He plainly express- 
ed his opinion that this orthodox spirit was destroy- 
ing the Society, and that the only means of averting 
the catastophe was a peaceable separation ; in these 
views a large majority of Friends united, men who 
were then, and always, beyond suspicion as to sound- 
ness of faith and purity of life. 

We have, on a former page, spoken of the excellent 
moral character of those men of the Orthodox party 
who were the principal actors in this schism. It now 
becomes our proper duty to speak of Elias Hicks and 
his friends. We were personally acquainted with all 
the Elders who opposed Elias Hicks. We were also 
personally acquainted with him, and we are able to 
say, without fear of contradiction, that he was not 
inferior to the best of them. Calm, dignified, and 
self-possessed, correct, even to rigidity, in his morals, 
simple and unostentatious, he was one of the purest 

10 



110 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

specimens of the genuine Quaker that it has ever 
been our lot to know. Not free, by any means, from 
the superstitions and peculiarities of Friends, often 
severe upon the weaknesses and vices of society, 
he yet, from his unostentatious and simple demea- 
nor, and active benevolence, commanded general 
respect. 

Great injustice has been done to Elias Hicks ; and 
it has had the more influence from the high character 
of those who opposed him. 

The original difficulty with Hicks is supposed to 
have arisen from the opposition which he made to an 
idea, which it is believed originated in London, of 
having a uniformity in the Disciplines of the various 
Yearly Meetings. Thus creating in efl'ect a higher 
oligarchy, which was to govern all. 

This plan was assented to by the oligarchy in 
Philadelphia. Hicks opposed it, and from that mo- 
ment he became an object of suspicion ; prejudices 
were excited against him, and after an acceptable 
public ministry of nearly half a century, it was dis- 
covered that he preached unsound doctrine. 

My impression is, that his views were entirely in 
accordance with the spiritual views which the Society 
of Friends held from their first organization ; that 
they corresponded with the doctrines publicly ex- 
pressed by the Quakers in Philadelphia at the time 
of George Keith, and with those of the American 
Friends generally. 

The ancient Quaker doctrines respecting the Tri- 
nity, and the doctrine of Christ, as we have before 
stated, was evidently elicited by the contentions of 
the day. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 11] 

I again refer to the letter from Penn to Fox, to be 
found in Clarkson's life of Penn. The embarrass- 
ment of early Friends respecting the doctrine of 
Christ, is therein fully manifested. Penn says : 
'' If we had answered nothing, we had gratified the 
enemy, stumbled the moderate, and grieved Friends. 
If we had answered no, (that the manhood was not 
a part of Christ) we had been lost. If we had an- 
swered in the terms of the question, we had taken 
Christ into parts. Whereas, I cried twice to them 
'^Christ is not to be divided." Yet it appears Friends 
finally consented to this division into parts. 

This plainly shows how undecided the doctrine of 
early Friends was on this subject. 

The terms made use of by the early Quakers, were 
ambiguous, equivocal, and indefinite. They meant 
something, or nothing, according to the explanations 
that were given to them ; and Friends explained them 
to suit their own purposes. Elias Hicks, we think 
with great truth and propriety, rejected these modes 
of expression. 

If it is Deism to believe that the flesh and bones of 
Jesus were not in reality the Saviour of men and the 
Son of God, then was Elias Hicks a deist. If an 
unshaken belief in Divine Revelation inwardly mani- 
fested, is Christianity, then was Elias Hicks a 
Christian. 

We may further add, that his views respecting the 
Scriptures, we believe, corresponded with those of 
the early Quakers. Estimated by that standard they 
are entirely sound, but weighed by the English 
standard they are unsound. Hicks never would 
have assented to the term '' written revelation," as 
used by the London Yearly Meeting • of the present 



112 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

year. It was made a serious charge against him 
that he asserted that men could not believe what they 
did not understand. 

The accepted Quaker doctrine that men can only 
understand the Scriptures by the influence of the 
spirit that gave them forth, fully admits the truth 
of the assertion ; and it is demonstrable that we 
understand natural things only by analogy to corres- 
ponding things that we fully comprehend. 

This much is due to the character of an injured 
man ; and yet we heard, within a few days, one of 
the eminent Orthodox Quaker preachers say, that 
Elias Hicks stood on the same platform as Thomas 
Paine, esteemed to be a thorough infidel. 

Those designated Hicksites, claimed to be the true 
Society, and that the term Friends belonged peculiarly 
to them, because they believed they represented 
more truly the faith that the American Quakers had 
always maintained, and they also knew that they 
were by far the larger number. In some Monthly 
Meetings there were but few individuals who took 
the Orthodox side in the controversey, — in the large 
Monthly Meeting at Makefield, we believe but two 
families, yet these went through the form of disown- 
ing all the others. Who, under such circumstances, 
are best entitled to be considered Makefield Monthly 
Meeting ? 

I have thus endeavored to give an impartial ac- 
count of the Hicksite schism, the most formidable that 
has ever occurred in the Society, and the end is 
not yet. 

There are, at this time, separate organizations of 
Gurneyite and Wilburite Quakers, and ultra aboli- 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIEXDS. 113 

tionists. A Yearly Meeting in Michigan has discon- 
tinued what are termed select meetings ; another in 
New York State has made still further innovations, 
and established the independent principle. In Eng- 
land there are the Beaconites and other classifications. 
No part of the Society is free from schism. In addi- 
tion to these, which have been the most remarkable, 
there have been many local difficulties, and much in- 
dividual dissatisfaction ; most of which is to be traced 
to the organization of the Society. 

There is harmony even in things so apparently dis- 
cordant. These schisms are the natural outpourings 
of that discontent which has so long been felt in the 
Society ; and that they should produce fruit accord- 
ing to their kind, is consistent with the immutable 
laws of that Providence with whom are the issues 
of life. 

In each case of nchism the most ungenerous asper- 
sions were cast on those who differed from the powers 
that ruled in the Society. Perot was said to have 
an aspiring mind, and a charge was made against him, 
that he thought himself further enlightened than 
George Fox and his friends. 

The same hackneyed terms have been used down 
to the present day. Whatever those men may have 
been, these charges, coming from persons pledged to 
a particular system, are entitled to no respect. 

We have adverted to many noble acts of Fox and 
and Penn, but it is doing them no discredit to sup- 
pose that others may have been in advance of them 
in particular instances. 

The school boy of the present day understands 
mathematics better than Isaac Newton, and though 

10* 



114 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

the integrity of the present may not be in advance of 
the past, yet the systems of Fox and Penn -were but 
systems, liable to be done away or improved by sub- 
sequent generations, and we have no doubt that many 
modern Quakers have a better comprehension of these 
things than those of former times. 

The Hicksite schism has been peculiarly called 
<< a tremendous heresy.'* Christianity was called 
<« heresy*' by the Jews. Paul says : <« After the man- 
ner ye call heresy, so worship I the God of my 
Fathers." Prelacy is heresy to Popery, Quakerism 
to Prelacy, and Hicksism to Orthodoxy. A clergy- 
man in New York speaking of Quakerism generally, 
says : A more ruinous heresy to the souls of men could 
scarcely be invented by the great sire of heresy than 
Quakerism." " The Quakers in their belief, have 
been cardinal heretics from the beginning."* 

We recognize no heresy but disobedience to the 
Divine law. 

There can be no other heresy to those who believe 
in the great truth, that Christianity is a principle of 
the mind, immutable and unchangeable. 

The course the Society has pursued, has been, as a 
matter of policy, most injudicious ; as a matter of 
principle, still worse. They have pleaded for liberty 
of conscience to all men, but have denied it to their 
own members. The effect is apparent. 

In the early days of the Society, meetings were 
established in Poland, in Germany, in Holland, and 
in the West Indies. There was one in Algiers in 
Africa. These, it is believed, are all extinct. In 
many parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland, houses 

* Cox on Quakerism. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 115 

once overflowing with members, are now nearly vacant. 
There was a list made out, about half a century ago, 
of seventy meetings, the members of no one of which 
amounted to five families. At a Half-Yearly Meet- 
ing in Wales, there were but three women. At a 
Monthly Meeting, there were but fourteen females ; 
at another, ten; at a third, five. The meeting of Mon- 
trose, consisted of an old woman of eighty, her 
daughter of sixty years old, and not another member. 
Things appear to be still worse now. The British 
government directed that a census should be taken of 
the number of individuals in attendance at the various 
places of worship in that country, on the 30th of 
March, the present year. The returns showed that 
there were 343 meeting-houses belonging to Friends, 
and that on that day, (being First day,) the average 
attendance, members and professors, was 39 at each 
house. There were only 31 meetings at which over 
100 persons attended on First day morning. 

On this continent many of our country meetings 
are poorly maintained ; the young people, the hope 
of a succeeding generation, have no interest in them ; 
many of them cannot be persuaded to attend them. 

Barclay, in his work on church government, says, 
"the good fruits that abound to the household of 
faith, is a certain evidence that they have been led 
by the hand of the Lord in the establishment of this 
government, which will yet more and more appear." 
He also says, " through our faithful testimony in the 
hand of the Lord, that anti-christian and apostatized 
generation, the national ministry, hath received a 
deadly blow, by our discovering, and witnessing 
against their forced maintenance and tithes." 



116 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

Where is to be found the fulfilment of these as- 
sumptions? The national ministry remains undis- 
turbed in all its power and influence. 

Pursuing a parity of reasoning, may we not say, 
that the schisms and disorders to which we have re- 
ferred, are a "certain evidence'' that this church 
government which he advocates has, after full experi- 
ence, been found not to be adapted to the present 
state of society ? We venture an opinion that his 
work on the subject, from which we quote, was one 
of the causes of the failure of his prediction. This 
work has been reprinted within a few years to justi- 
fy the arbitrary proceedings of the Orthodox Friends 
toward those they term Hicksites. It is by no means 
improbable that it may be again republished by the 
Hicksites themselves, to justify their proceedings 
toward the Congregationalists or some other class of 
Society, from whom they may happen to differ. He 
says, '« the thing in hand to be proved," was that 
Jesus Christ intended there should be order in his 
church. It seems not to have occurred to his mind, 
" that where the church of Christ is, there is order ;" 
that it produces fruit according to its kind, as the oak 
produces the acorn and the apple tree its natural fruit. 
Where government exists it must be sustained ; but its 
strongest element is the harmony of its parts. There 
is no true conservatism but truth. This applies as well 
to governments as to individuals. 

The commotions that are observed in all portions 
of the Society, indicate a thirst after a better state 
of things. They are effecting their purpose in their 
own way. The Society may be destroyed under their 
influence. If it be so, it will be from the effect of 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 117 

that reverence for the past, which opposes such, 
changes, as the feelings of the present age demands. 
Every contest with the crown in Great Britain, for 
hundreds of years, has resulted in enlarged liberty to 
the people. Happy would it have been for the So- 
ciety of Friends, if the schisms to which I have al- 
luded had produced a similar eifect — but until the diffi- 
culty with Elias Hicks, the Orthodox party were 
always able to crush those they called disorganizers, 
and thus they went on sowing the seed of future dis- 
cord. 

Where there is most intelligence and liberty for 
free enquiry, these schisms are most likely to occur. 
Free enquiry which strengthens systems founded in 
truth, tends also to destroy error. The conservative 
will of course, mourn and lament. Man often weeps 
when he might rejoice, and rejoices when he might 
rather weep. 



SUGGESTIONS AS TO A EEMEDY. 

It has become a watchword in the various divi- 
sions of the Society, that in order to remedy the evils 
that exist. Friends must return to first principles ; 
hence it becomes important to ascertain what the 
first principles of the Society are. It is evident that 
there are first principles for everything, as well in 
moral as in physical affairs ; the laws of mechanics, 
mathematics, chemistry, &c., are the first principles 
by which they are respectively governed, and they 
can be traced to no other ultimate source than the 



118 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

divine mind and they are perfect in their kind. Man 
searches them out, but he has no power to change 
them. In moral affairs, free agency seems to be an 
attribute of our nature, and man forms for himself 
the principles by which he is to be governed. Des- 
potism, Democracy, Papacy, Prelacy, Methodism or 
Quakerism are founded upon the principles of indi- 
vidual men combined for those purposes, and they 
necessarily assume a character corresponding there- 
with. With despotism comes power ; without this, it 
is void. With democracy, equal rights. A careful 
consideration of our moral existence will show, that 
the harmonious action of any system depends upon 
the harmony of its individual parts. 

By a law of God that appears unchangeable, not 
only all physical things, but moral principles also, bring 
forth fruit according to their kind. We have said on 
a former page, if we desire peace let us lay peaceable 
foundations. 

The greatest difficulties that occurred in the colony 
of Pennsylvania, were the result of the feudal te- 
nures or proprietary rights of the Penn family, in 
contradiction to the elementary democracy of its 
constitution. Like difficulties are occurring in the 
state of New York, feudal tenures engrafted on 
democracy. In our general government we have a 
broad declaration of equal rights, and an attempt to 
reconcile with it a system of slavery. This is shaking 
the country to the centre. If we pass to the Euro- 
pean world, we shall find other inconsistencies ; hence 
are required despotisms and standing armies to pre- 
serve peace. 

We propose to make the application of these prin- 
ciples to the Society of Friends. Neither that Socie- 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 119 

ty nor any other, nor any combination of men, form 
an exception to this law. Human effort can effect 
no change in it. It is under this conviction that we 
come to the inquiry, what are the primary principles 
of the Society ? We have fully adverted to them be- 
fore, but it is needful to recapitulate in order to a 
full understanding of our subject. 

To minds that are disposed calmly to consider 
truth, we think there need be no difficulty in answering 
our questions. 

The fundamental principle of the Society of Friends 
is described in the following language. " Our re- 
ligion stands in a principle which changeth the mind." 
The second is like unto it, and necessarily connected 
with it, that this principle furnishes an evidence of 
truth and duty, and that men ought to be obedient 
thereto. Connected with both is liberty of con- 
science and the right of private judgment. A prin- 
ciple and the conviction of the necessity of obedience 
to it, would be void without individual liberty to be 
governed thereby. These contain but one principle, 
a deep philosophical truth, and this constitutes the 
creed of the Society of Friends, if creed it can be 
called. 

These primary principles are the platform on which 
Quakerism was originally founded. Not on the 
Scriptures, but the spirit which gave forth all the 
truth and excellence that they contain. Not on in- 
dividual righteousness, but on the spirit whence, as 
its natural fruit, righteousness proceeds. Not on 
Christ as a body of flesh and blood, but on Christ 
the wisdom of God and the power of God. Not on 
peace, for many of the early Quakers were in the 



120 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

army. Not on the attendance of meetings, not on dress 
or language. All these things may or may not be in- 
cidental to the state of particular minds. 

This fundamental principle has been again and 
again violated by the Society of Friends ; their system 
itself is a palpable and direct denial of their first or 
primary principle. It is denied when they attempt 
to coerce individuals to rise and uncover the head in 
the time of public prayer contrary to their own sense 
of right. It is denied when they attempt to prescribe a 
faith for their members. It is denied when they 
interfere with dress, and in those various cases of 
the exercise of the discipline to which we have re- 
ferred. 

It may be asked whether these are not proper ob- 
jects for the care of a religious society? 

The primary question is, are fundamental prin- 
ciples to be departed from ? We answer no ! To dis- 
regard them necessarily leads to confusion. 

The remedy we propose is a very simple one, a re- 
turn to first principles. If the members of the Socie- 
ty of Friends are prepared to change those principles, 
to adopt the Calvinistic idea of original sin, or the 
supremacy of the Scriptures; or with the Papists say, 
that a holy conclave shall be the intreperter of spirit- 
ual influences, then let every thing correspond thereto. 
We think they are not ready for any of these 
changes, and hence we say that the system should bo 
made to correspond with those feelings that are well 
established in the minds of Friends, and then we 
shall do all that can be done to restore harmony to 
the Society. We may be told that George Fox, Wm. 
Penn and others introduced the idea of a Trinity, of 



THE SOCIETY OE FRIENDS. 121 

a particular faith, or a precise Discipline. We 
then repeat that these early Quakers themselves 
have done more than all besides to subvert their 
own principles. It changes in no respect our po- 
sition, even were we to admit that every individual 
united in the doctrines that have been ascribed 
to them by the Orthodox Yearly Meetings. We 
should only the more earnestly say that they en- 
deavored to establish contradictions from which har- 
mony could not come. We do not make such an ad- 
mission ; they were essentially spiritualists. 

There is another principle, fundamental to the de- 
mocratic element of government, and that is the right 
of the majority to rule ; this idea, imperfectly ac- 
knowledged among Friends, is practically void. It 
should be carried into eflfect in its full force and vigor. 
If we have a democracy, let it be true to its own 
nature, and there will be no discord. We desire that 
our premises should be carefully examined; because if 
they are true, our conclusions follow as a natural con- 
sequence. We believe we have been entirely correct 
in stating the primary principle of the Society. We 
have treated of it more at length in our early pages, 
and we repeat our deep conviction that no sophistry 
can change it, no human ingenuity evade its truth. 

If, then, our conclusions are true, the superstructure 
should be made to harmonise therewith, and inasmuch 
as it may deviate therefrom, it may be considered 
false. We say, then, that Friends should change 
their fundamental principles, or carry them out. 

We are aware that every evil to the Society will 
be predicted from the changes which we suggest ; the 
only diflSiculty that we foresee, is that the minds of 

11 



122 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

Friends are not prepared to adopt them. If men 
are warriors, they will work according to their own 
feelings ; it does not thence follow that there is not a 
state of peace. 

We propose, first, that the Society has no right to 
interfere with the individual faith of its members, as 
being entirely inconsistent with its primary element. 
On this point we shall state our views. 

All men are, without exception, to a certain extent, 
Christians. There is, as we have said, every where 
an under current of spiritualism, and it is this which 
unites them in a common brotherhood. 

There probably are not any two individuals who 
agree in all points of doctrine. Are we to reject all 
who differ from us, and stand alone in the world ? 
or where is the line of distinction ? 

Some reject the Atheist, some the Deist ; the dif- 
ferent divisions of Quakers reject each other. These 
prejudices, and alienations are alike in their nature ; 
they injure those who indulge in them. A religious 
life has no necessary connection with speculative 
opinions, and the Atheist and the Christian may har- 
monize together in the good that is in each. 

There have been a few who, in the pride of opinion, 
have said "there is no God." Yet all seem to be- 
lieve in truth, and we have reason to suppose that 
this professed disbelief is to the absurd ideas that are 
attached to the name and attributes of the Most 
High. 

Many ancient philosophers of the purest lives 
were termed Atheists, because they did not believe 
in the heathen mythology. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 123 

Justin Martyr, the mos teminent of the Apostolic 
Fathers, left this testimony, ^'That Atheists and 
Barbarians, having the true spirit, were Christians, 
without regard to their speculative opinions,'' and 
this, more than his myrtyrdom, furnishes evidence of 
his deep religious feeling and enlightened Christian- 
ity. Like observations would apply to skepticism of 
all kinds. Justin Martyr was greatly in advance of the 
early Quakers in this particular. 

We certainly believe thajt it is weakness and not 
strength that is so sensitive to diflference of opinion. 
Wm. Penn wrote thus in his " Letter to the Coun- 
cil and Senate of Embden : " The different per- 
suasions of men about things relating to another life 
can in no ways render them unfit for this.'' 

Religion is an affair between God and each indi- 
vidual soul, and a body of men bearing the character 
of a religious society has no more right to attempt to 
control it, than the government of a commonwealth 
or a kingdom. 

It is our belief that the Society of Friends receive 
their authority to interfere with the faith of their 
members, from the same source as does the church of 
Rome, and that it is in both cases a usurpation of 
inherent rights, conceived in weakness and imbecility ; 
and that it is the essence of a bigoted sectarianism. 

Our second proposition is, that no society has a 
right to interfere with liberty of conscience. Friends' 
claim this as an inalienable right, and there is abun- 
dant evidence to show how earnestly the idea was cher- 
ished by early Quakers. 

When, in the year 1676, Friends had in New Jer- 
sey, for the first time, the power to establish a civil 



124 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

government, they incorporated this broad principle 
into their fundamental Law. " No men or number 
of men upon earth hath power or authority to rule 
over men's consciences in religious matters; therefore 
it is ordained, that no persons whatsoever, within the 
said province, at any time or times hereafter, shall be 
anyways, upon any pretence whatsoever, called in 
question or in the least punished or hurt, either in 
person, estate or privilege, for the sake of his opinion, 
judgment, faith or worship towards God, in matters 
of religion/' 

The Constitution of Pennsylvania, says, — and it 
is copied from the original frame of Government 
established by the Quakers,^ — " No human authority 
can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with 
the rights of conscience." 

Our third proposition is, introducing into the Society 
in its full extent, the democratic element of govern- 
ment. 

We are aware of the contrast drawn by the Friends 
between the voting in the Roman Catholic church and 
the mode of deciding questions among them; they may 
be equally wrong when their eifect is to concentrate 
irresponsible power in the hands of a few. 

Equal rights, which were deemed so important in the 
colony founded by Friends, never had an existence in 
the government of the sect, and yet it is as important 
in the one case as the other. Innumerable evils have 
resulted from the neglect of this great idea. 

If a majority fairly represented decide any question, 
the minority are bound to submit or to withdraw. 
We see exemplified in the State how quietly minorities 
submit to majorities. This principle would at once 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 125 

subvert the oligarchy which is incorporated with the 
present system, which, if not destroyed, will destroy 
the Society. 

Those familiar with history, are fully acquainted 
with the fact, that church and state have been united 
in nearly all the governments of the civilized world 
since the Christian era, and every evil has been pre- 
dicted from their separation. Yet we have seen them 
disunited, liberty of conscience introduced, every pro- 
phecy in regard to them falsified, and their value en- 
hanced beyond what their most sanguine friends could 
ever have foreseen. We feel convinced it will be 
thus in the Society of Friends, whenever its members 
are prepared to carry out these changes. 

If Penn had adopted the idea in forming his go- 
vernment, that liberty of conscience was to be subject 
to the power of the State, his colony would have been 
greatly injured. Happily this was not the case. In 
his colony he adopted the idea that '' The best go- 
vernment is that which governs least." 

The result is, that in the length and breadth of this 
commonwealth, there is probably not an intelligent 
individual to be found, who would desire any import- 
ant change in the nature of the government* If there 
are grievances, they are of a minor character, which 
have no bearing upon the system as a whole. There 
is no rebellion, no schism, no division ; and, so far as 
we can judge, needful alterations being provided for, 
there is no prospect of any. 

Friends in their Discipline reversed this proposition, 
seeming to believe that "the best government is that 
which governs most.'' 

The result in this case is that the Society is torn 

II 



126 THE SOCIETY OE FRIENDS. 

by schism and dissension, and there is scarcely an in- 
telligent individual in it that does not perceive that 
there is some screw loose, some link broken that re- 
quires to be renewed in order to restore harmony. 
We may be told that one relates to religious, the 
other to civil affairs; and there may perhaps be a dis- 
tinction ; but properly considered, every government 
is a civil government, and can only regulate civil af- 
fairs ; it cannot read the hearts of men. Righteousness 
is an individual principle. Any government estab- 
lished on enlightened principles of justice and truth, 
may be considered a religious government. We 
impair the beauty and universality of the Christian 
religion, when we confine it to those things the world 
calls religious. The religious principle is the all-per- 
vading element of our moral nature. Wherever 
there is harmony and truth, there is religion, whatever 
name it may bear. 

Religious organizations are but government within 
governments, wheels within wheels ; in all govern- 
ments each constituent division should harmonize 
with the others, and thus contribute to the strength 
of the whole. In the government of this State, as 
each part is faithfully carried out, the whole is made 
stronger. This is reversed in systems where there are 
contradictions. The more individual partb are per- 
fected, the more the system is weakened. Carry the 
Quaker discipline fully into effect, and you deny the 
fundamental principles of Quakerism ; adhere to it, 
and you deny the Discipline. 

In individual virtue, benevolence and philanthro- 
py, Friends have probably no superiors. Their in- 
tegrity has sustained the Society under an organiza- 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 127 

tion that would else, ere this, have destroyed it. An 
organization to be valuable, should sustain and sup- 
port integrity, and not be a burthen on it. It requires 
but little observation of the meetings of business in 
the Society, to perceive how great a burthen their 
discipline is upon the real worth and integrity of its 
members. The reference we have made to the Green 
Street Yearly Meeting, where perhaps a thousand or 
more persons, excellent and true men, were detained 
for hours to consider whether a parent, a husband, 
or a wife should be allowed to mark by a small stone 
the spot where the remains of a beloved object re- 
posed, is an instance of this ; not peculiar, for similar 
manifestations are of constant recurrence. The ener- 
gies of the Society are wasted in a continual effort to 
support a system which is not in harmony with its 
fundamental principle. 

We have thus endeavored to show from facts that 
admit of no dispute, the real state of the Society of 
Friends at the present moment, the causes which have 
led to its feebleness and decline, and have suggested 
what we consider to be the only radical remedy. 
Friends need expect no permanent peace, until the 
causes which produce discord are removed ; until that 
takes place, we do not know that peace is desirable. 

Whenever Friends return to their first principles, 
these will of themselves furnish the means of a per- 
manent reformation. Here we might stop, as it is no 
part of our design to undertake to build up a society, 
but rather to state general principles and leave them 
to be examined by others ; yet as we have our own 
views with regard to some particular points of the 



128 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

Discipline, we are willing to express them, aware 
however, that they may not be adapted to the minds 
of others. 

In the full conviction that the proper object of re- 
ligious association is to reform and not to cut off, 
we should curtail, if not abolish altogether, the sys- 
tem of disownment ; it is doubtful to us whether it is 
not false in principle. The worse men are, the more 
they need the care of their friends. We have seen 
many disowned, but never yet have seen any good 
come from it. 

We should discontinue the queries ; the answers of 
which have become so formal, that they might almost 
as well be stereotyped to answer for one generation 
as for another. 

We should abolish the censorship over the press, 
and allow members to criticise the proceedings of the 
Society as they see proper. A system may be pre- 
sumed to be unsound that will not bear the test of the 
most rigid criticism. We should close those select 
meetings of all descriptions, that have given so much 
dissatisfaction ; we should dispense with the Book of 
Discipline, with all those recommendations from Year- 
ly Meetings for hundreds of years, as having per- 
formed their mission, and being no longer useful. 
We would leave dress and language to be regulated 
by individual minds, as they might see proper. We 
would reject all idea of interfering with private rights. 
Abandoning all tests of faith, would break down all 
barriers between those called Orthodox and others. 
We doubt the possibility of an erroneous faith upon 
points that are essential to the salvation of man. We 
doubt the capacity of the mind to conceive of effect. 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 129 

without reference to a primary cause. We doubt the 
power of disbelief of the moral sense or grace of God 
in the heart. Men may be disobedient to their con- 
victions, but we cannot imagine the great First Cause 
would have left his work imperfect. An enlightened 
view of these subjects, should unite the different divi- 
sions of the Society. 

The most ultra radical doctrines may be found in 
members of the Orthodox meeting; and among the 
Hicksites there is orthodoxy enough to satisfy its 
most strenuous advocate. Now that the chief actors 
in the schism have passed away, there ought to be no 
separation. 

Our belief is, that let the Society take what form 
it may, if a discipline contrary to the feeling of the 
age is to be maintained — if an oligarchy is to have 
power to suppress every thing it does not approve — 
if the youth are to be alienated because they do not 
conform in dress and language to some standard that 
has been set up in a former age — if excellent men are 
to be disowned for infringing laws which carry no 
conviction of their utility to the mind, then indeed 
there seems no hope for the Society. Through the 
integrity of its individual members, its wealth and in- 
fluence, it may linger out a feeble and protracted ex- 
istence ; but no extensive benefit to the world, no 
vivifying influence to the cause of truth, can be ex- 
pected from it. 

We would abandon at once and forever all compul- 
sion in the cause of religion. We readily admit there 
is much truth and beauty in many of the Quaker 
views ; but why attempt to enforce a compliance with 
them ? 



130 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

The system we advocate will be compared to a rope 
of sand, which cannot hold together. It is so as re- 
spects human enactments. It would substitute the 
law of sympathy for the law of force, and place the 
Society of Friends on the only ground on which we 
think it can ever stand consistently with its primary 
principle of individuality. 

i '1 If this cannot be, at least in part, accomplished, 
then we yield up all hope of a permanent and sub- 
stantial reformation in the Society of Friends. 

In attempting to form an organization on the 
Quaker platform, we are immediately met with the 
difficulty to which we have referred, that organization 
implies sovereignty ; sovereignty, government; and the 
primary principle of Friends inculcates individualism. 
The early Quakers thought thay had found a narrow 
pathway between the opposing principles, but they 
failed in the attempt, mainly because they denied their 
members the right of private judgment. We believe 
with this, these seemingly opposing propositions may 
harmonize. 

The feelings of the age are in favor of religious 
societies ; the world delights in symbolic worship, and 
though we admit that government must be sustained, 
and order preserved, we yet deny the necessity of 
that complicated machinery with which the Society 
is at present encumbered. 

The religious meetings of Friends are greatly in 
advance of those of any other Society. All these as- 
semblies are highly social in their character, foster 
and keep alive the kindlier feelings of human nature, 
and as gatherings devoted to mutual improvement, 
and standing on their proper footing, are not only 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 131 

unexceptionable, but praiseworthy. But we deny the 
authority of any man or set of men to enforce the at- 
tendance of such meetings. It would seem to be as 
reasonable for those who stay away from them to cen- 
sure those who go, as the reverse. Religious meetings 
are not necessarily connected with a religious life ; the 
worst men may frequent them, and the best absent 
themselves from them. 

Man can no more worship by appointment than he 
can pray by appointment. We cannot even define 
what social or public worship is. Man worships God 
by doing his duty, let that be what it may; perhaps as 
much in staying from, as in going to meeting. As 
he is united with the Divine harmony, he necessarily 
worships God every where without regard to time or 
place. 

There is evidence that true devotion springs up 
spontaneously in every mind. The homage that is so 
generally paid to truth is proof of this. It is not the 
offspring of churches or of religious communities of 
any kind ; divest these of all mystery and leave them 
to stand on their proper footing, and then only can 
their real value be properly appreciated. 

Was the intelligence of Friends in proportion to 
their integrity, we think they would at once perceive 
the necessity of changes, corresponding in some de- 
gree to the feelings of the age. The circumstances of 
Friends have materially changed in a hundred years; 
the American government has been changed, and the 
feelings and habits of society have changed. 

Their common sufferings formed a bond of union 
to the early Quakers ; it had the effect of lessening 
the influences of minor differences, as the greater 



132 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

naturally absorbs the lesser evil, compassion for their 
accumulated wrongs drew many to them, and the So- 
ciety rapidly increased. All this was unfavorable 
to that calmness essential to the formation of rules 
of government for a religious society. 

Since that period, in Pennsylvania, every thing 
has favored Friends. For a long time they control, 
led the government ; they have had wealth and influ- 
ence and respectability, yet there being nothing to 
absorb the inharmonious tendencies of the system, 
the Society has almost as rapidly declined. 

Are then prisons and persecutions needful to the 
preservation of the present Quaker system ? We 
think they are. A general persecution would tend to 
unite Friends, yet it would remedy no evil ; and when 
removed, they would remain to produce their natural 
fruit. 

Every effort to promote harmony has failed, — in- 
crease of discipline and innumerable advices both public 
and private, — whilst those Friends who have put forth 
these advices, who have been esteemed most religious 
and exemplary, have been most active in these con- 
tentions and schisms. , 

What then remains to be done, but to return to 
first principles as a means of making such changes as 
are required ? 

While we are now writing, after many alienations, 
feuds and dissensions, almost unto blows, two divi- 
sions of the professed Orthodox portion of the So- 
ciety the Gurneyites and Wilburites, as if in mockery 
of their professions of peace, are appearing before one 
of the legal tribunals of New England, asking that it, 
supported by swords and bayonets, shall settle dif- 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 133 

ferences which they cannot settle themselves ; and 
the individuals who are making this appeal are among 
the most respectable men of the country. This is 
but re-enacting scenes that occurred in the middle 
states between other divisions of the Society. 

These men we have no doubt are acting faithfully 
according to the sectarianism they cherish. 

It is a reflection upon human nature that this whole 
subject cannot be discussed by Orthodox and Hicks- 
ite alike with a single eye to truth without regard to 
their respective prejudices. If these prejudices and 
preconceived opinions could be removed, we do not 
believe there would be any diflBculty in reorganizing 
the Society of Friends. 

In reference to his system of Laws, Penn says : <' I 
do not find a model in the world that time, place, 
and some singular emergencies have not necessarily 
altered." 

His system of government was the result of his 
sense of right, sustained by men as wise as himself. 
Thus was exhibited the infinite advantage of an in- 
dependent private judgment. Had Penn, like the 
Puritans, taken the Mosaic code, or any other code, as 
his guide, those civil institutions which have been 
the admiration of the world, would have had no 
place in the early government of this province. 

In a society capacity these Friends undertook to 
" restore and re-establish upon its right basis the an- 
cient Apostolic order of the Church of Christ." 

In the one case they sought to know what was 
suited to man in his present condition ; in the other, 
they acted by proscription, and required men of their 
own day to conform to the precepts and usages of a 

12 



134 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

small body of Christians, who lived sixteen hundred 
years before, and who acted under different circum- 
stances. This, in a progressive world, can never be 
done with impunity. 

I see no reason why individuals who feel the need 
of sympathetic communion, should not form societies 
to meet their own wants, either through aflSliated 
or individual meetings, with large or small associa- 
tions, as might best suit the feelings of the members. 
If all should fail, then abandon religious organiza- 
tions altogether, as being inconsistent with the 
Christian religion. We think they are not inconsis- 
tent, and we would like to see a meeting estab- 
lished in every neighborhood, or a number of them, 
with few or many members as the case may be, formed 
in accordance with the principles that ruled in the 
Society before an extended church hierarchy was 
ever thought of. There is scarcely a possibility of 
the same fanaticism that occurred at that period, 
but even admitting that it should be so again, it is 
still we think far preferable to a dead formality. 

There is a vast number of individuals, some who 
are members of religious societies, and others who 
are not, and not a few of those standing on the Quaker 
platform, who practically carry this voluntary sys- 
tem into effect. They go to meeting or stay away 
as they think fit ; are subject to no sectarian rules ; 
acknowledge no dogmas, and yet in practical virtue 
they are not inferior to their more Orthodox neigh- 
bors. 

This class of individuals is probably more numerous 
in Pennsylvania than all sectarians combined. There 
is a deep rooted dislike to the assumptions of the 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 135 

clergy, a want of confidence in the power of sects. 
Thus there is a great field open for the promulgation 
of pure Christian truths, we mean spiritualism, not 
paganism under the name of Christianity. We witness 
the establishment of various societies to promote par- 
ticular objects of benevolence. The abolitionists 
combine many of the purest and most earnest minds 
in the middle and northern states. There are free meet- 
ings, meetings for conference, where much true re- 
ligious feeling is manifested. We endorse not their 
peculiar views ; but we ask, are not these religious 
meetings ? Every meeting that is held under the best 
influences of the human mind is a religious meeting. 
We believe it is easy to form an organization where 
the government would extend no further than the 
preservation of a proper decorum in meetings ; leaving 
individuals to attend them or not as they thought 
right, without becoming offenders. 

We think it probable there would be larger meet- 
ings on the voluntary principle, than on any other, 
and that they would have more power in them. 

It would furnish to individuals, what they seem to 
desire, the opportunity of a sympathetic gathering 
at stated times, where they might take their families, 
if so inclined, and hear any advice that might be 
offered, or sit in silence as the case might be. If 
none chose to attend such meetings, the Society 
would not necessarily be dissolved or lessened, be- 
cause it would be founded on a principle not to be ef- 
fected by these outward incidents. 

" 'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws, 
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind. 
That binds our peace • but harmony itself, 
Attuning all our passions into love.^' 



136 THE SOCIETY OF FEIENDS. 

If, however, it should appear after a full and dispas- 
sionate view of the state of Society^ that the individual 
members fairly represented, are not, at present 
prepared for any change, that its dogmas and disci- 
pline are needful for its preservation, -we will still ad- 
here to it, and abide our time, because Quakerism has 
many redeeming points. In regard to liberty of con- 
science, in its censorship over the press and its ex- 
acting Discipline, it is probably behind most others; 
yet as a whole, we think it superior to any other re- 
ligious system with w^hich we are acquainted. Take 
it with all its supposed tendency to formality, to fan- 
aticism and enthusiasm, we still say it is better. 

We have spoken fully of its imperfections ; we think 
them very great ; but withal, the system among Friends 
combines more common sense, more true philosophy, 
than all others with which we are acquainted. We 
know that many young Friends are attracted by the 
trappings and gew-gaws, and the studied eloquence of 
a paid ministry; we say to these young people, " Se- 
parate yourselves from all these things.'' 

We write in the full conviction that there may 
be as much, perhaps more, real religion in other indi- 
viduals than in the members of the Society of Friends, 
but in most cases we consider their first principles 
radically and hopelessly false, and incoiisistent with 
the Christian religion. 

Quakerism points to perfection, through the imme- 
diate operation of that power which alone is perfect, 
while in most other systems men are recommended to 
become copyists through material influences. If this 
could be fully carried into effect, the world would re- 
produce characters of the same nature, without pro^ 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 137 

gress, through all succeeding time, according to the 
law of material things, as man of the present day 
has essentially the same physical development as 
Adam or Abraham. 

Their systems would destroy all religion, but they 
cannot be carried out, because of the underlaying 
spirituality common to the human mind. 

The details of the Quaker organization being in- 
consistent with their primary principle, have produced 
the errors we have witnessed. Yet the principle itself, 
having its basis on spiritual influences, we believe to 
be eternal and unchangeable ; while those of Trinita- 
rians and Unitarians, in all their divisions, having 
their foundation professedly on material influences — 
on evidence derived through the senses — are necessa- 
rily subject to all the vicissitudes of time, and, with 
this basis, we believe them to be essentially Pagan in 
their character.* We speak of systems, not of indi- 
viduals. 

We may be told of the consolation many minds 
derive from these systems. We believe it ; they are 
in accordance with their preconceived opinions, and it 
is consistent with the state they are in. Thus, also, 
each division of the Quakers, the Jew and the Mus- 
selman, find consolation in their respective faiths. Yet, 
when analyzed, this consolation is found to be in the 

* The late William Allen of London, says : " We want no 
more theories, no more doctrines to procure the happiness 
of mankind ; we only want men to be really Christians ; 
whereas, at present, the great bulk of those who go under the 
name, are Pagans at heart.'' See his Life, vol. I, page 
489—490. 



138 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

true Christian principle of spiritualism, the common 
attribute of sincere minds everywhere, and has 
nothing to do with dogmas. 

Let me not be told that Quakerism is a small idea 
of plain language, plain clothes, and a narrow-minded 
Discipline. It is so to those who look no deeper; and 
they work in their ow^n way, and to their own end, 
which is discord ; but in its true sense, it is an elabo- 
rate principle of harmony, which extends to man in 
every relation in life. It is the only true conserva- 
tive principle in society. 

We have said that Quakerism — we mean not in its 
limited, but in its extended sense — contains within it- 
self the elements of true democracy. We feel the con- 
viction that no man yet comprehends it, in its fulness. 
The law^s of nature, municipal jurisprudence, moral 
philosophy in all its parts, the rights of man, are all 
comprehended in its ample spirit and influence. 

We have seen British power yielding to a few de- 
spised Quakers ; we have seen the value of Quakerism 
in the early government of Pennsylvania ; we have 
seen its effects in softening the hearts of the savages, 
and preventing war ; we have seen it modifying the 
judiciary, and reforming prison discipline, and 
wherever it prevails, producing an increase of moral 
good. 

We are not prepared to believe, that the Quaker 
mission is ended, but rather that it is yet to prosper 
under more enlightened auspices. 

Edward Burroughs uses this emphatic language : 
<« My confidence is sure that our testimony shall be 
glorious forever, and that this people shall never be 
extinguished from being a people.'* 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 139 

We have adverted in the early part of these pages, 
to the extended and enlarged views that he gave to 
Quakerism. '' Moses, a warrior, was a Quaker, so 
also was David, and Jeremiah, a Jewish prophet;" 
and whenever Quakerism takes this broad and ex- 
tended ground, then we think this prophecy will be 
fulfilled. 

If there are stages or steps in the progress of men, 
as some suppose, if Judaism w^as a preparation for 
Christianity, Popery for Protestantism, and this for 
an age of increased thought and action, then also 
we may suppose that Quakerism is the proper plat- 
form on which still mere elevated Christian organiza- 
tions may be founded ; because in its best and truest 
sense, it is in advance of other religious societies. We 
think further moral reformation will be effected, either 
through this people or some other. The restlessness 
of the Christian world in all its various phases, speaks 
but one language, that man is seeking for a rest which 
he has not yet found ; and though he may never gain 
this from outw^ard circumstances, yet there is also a 
harmony for societies, according to their nature, as 
full and as perfect as that for individual minds. 

The system we advocate is not Hicksism, or Ortho- 
doxy ; not Unity, or Trinity ; it is Quakerism that is 
consistent with common sense, with true wisdom and 
sound philosophy. It is Quakerism freed from its 
dogmas, and, so far as society can effect it, freed from 
its sectarianism and narrow mindedness. It would 
leave to individuals the subject of their own faith, 
and liberty to explain it. It would leave to each the 
regulation of his own conduct, with the liberty of re- 
commending to others what he deemed right. It 



dg^ } 



140 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 

would carry out the idea that the aid of an organized 
body is useless and burthensome in all undertakings 
that can best be accomplished by individual efforts. 

Maclaine, the learned translator of Mosheim's Ec- 
clesiastical history, says : " If Quakerism be now in 
England on a more rational footing than formerly, we 
may congratulate its members upon the happy change, 
but at the same time condole with them on the ap- 
proaching annihilation (ff. their sect ; for if reasdn gets 
in among them, the spirit — I mean their spirit — will 
soon be quenched, and fancy being no more the only 
criterion of truth, the fundamental principle of their 
existence will be destroyed." 

These are the sentiments of a (so called) Doctor of 
Divinity. Whatever may become of the Quakers as 
a sect, we believe Quakerism, in its true sense, is not 
founded on fancy, but on those unchangeable laws of 
God which admit not an idea of the possibility of an- 
nihilation. 

It is no paradox to say, that the highest Quaker- 
ism is not to be a Quaker, but a participator in the 
universal harmony of the Divine Law which knows 
no sect or party. 



A REVIEW 



i 



OF THE 



PUBLIC EELATIONS 



OF THE 



SOCIETY OF TEIENDS, 



ITS 



DOCTRINES AND DISGIPLINE, 



ITS 



SCHISMS AND DECLINE, 



BY 



WILLIAM LOGAN FISHER. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

AfERRiHEw & Thompson, Printers, 

No. 7 Carter's Alley. 

1852. 






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